Bathroom window privacy

[ChristopherTracy]

OK so our new house has a garden facing bathroom with frosted glass. All well and good during the day.

The trouble is I have noticed that you can still clearly see what is going on when the light is on in the evening and the loo is right next to the window (the window drops to arse height). Lovely.

At the moment I have put a picture on the windowsill which blocks some of the view.

Replacing the window isnt an option so what else? sticky film over the frosted glass? I dont want to put a blind up that is permanently down and the previous owners seem to have done without oddly.

Mine's like that. I just have a blind that I close when I'm going in there and can be seen. It's only a slight hassle pulling a blind every time I use the bathroom, not much more effort than locking the door etc. Frosted glass only does so much to obscure the view inside when the light's on.

What about a night and day blind?

Hmm so a blind really the only option. What is a night and day blind?

Sticky film is easiest and cheapest option.

Just googled them - interesting, maybe a fixed bottom-up blind. Then I might not need the handyman back in.

I had something similar in my old house, I had a pressure curtain rod with voile panel. Gave some privacy but also let light in etc.

I'm not sure sticky film would work as it might not adhere fully.

Or you could try this?

annabelvita.com/2013/04/18/lace-window-treatment-with-cornflour/

If I had the money I’d get shutters in the bathroom. Quick to close and open, slight pain to dust I’d imagine though.

We have clear glass in our bathroom window because it is the only upstairs window from where I can see our gate and driveway and next door and I am nosy and opening the window to snoop gives the game away

We have a lovely wooden blind which we put down for using the bathroom but leave up the rest of the time to facilitate my nosiness.

If it was adults I could have a lovely blind that went up and down all the time but there is no way my teenagers are going to be arsed with it which means that all the neighbours in their gardens and the backing house will see them weeing.

I can barely get them to put the seat up let alone use the blind which means it would be down all the time.

It wouldn't cost much to have the window remodelled to above chest height. Just a question of how it would look from the outside and if in a conservation area you may need planning p.

Yes - that is the ideal solution. We are completely broke now though as we had to replace the boiler almost immediately on moving in. They are properly cheap plastic windows as well. I have no idea why they wanted a low window in a bathroom like that.

From the outside it would look odd though as the whole terrace is the same iyswim. It is replacement plastic windows in the same size as the sashes would have been when that room was a bedroom.

I have a patterned self-adhesive film on mine which lets in the light but makes the window obscure. There are loads of options - plain, patterned and coloured. It comes on a roll and you cut it to shape. I have it on several windows of my very old house and it looks like very convincing patterned glass.

We had shutters in our last house. They look good and ours only covered the bottom half of the windows so still let lots of light in above.

Plants? Devil's Ivy from hanging pots would obscure things without blocking the light.

Shutters would be nicest

I hope my new neighbours see this, traumatised by last night's naked display.

What's the issue with the blind being permanently down? Whenever someone is in there it will be down, and when you're not in there, you won't see it?

My bathroom is like this and I have old leaded glass windows, the blind is pretty much always down to about an inch from the bottom.

As said, it gives privacy when in there and when not in there, well no one can see its down. You'd just have it up for no benefit. It's not like folks socialise in thr bathroom and watch tv.

We have voile up and then s rollerblind once its dark. Bathroom windows are often more see through than people realise!

We have a (fake) wood slatted blind.

As a cheap way of raising the window height you could use a solid coloured fablon / DC fix type stuff and the lower part of the window.

They do, also do some very good frosting ones in the DC fix - my brother has used one on his main door which has a large window and you would never have guessed it was just a stick on film. However I've never seen any window frosting that works well enough for my liking, when it's dark outside and lights are on inside.

I have a bathroom window IN my shower. It's distrorted but I'm sure it's still obvious what's going on when it's dark out and the light is on. I wake early and shower, now that the darkness is returning, before daylight. Previous owners had a blind but I didn't like the look of it and being over the bath it had a tendency to mould and be a dirt magnet. I just hope anyone else up at the hour isn't overly concerned with watching me shower!

This is not the best choice, but just to give you an idea of what the self-adhesive vinyl looks like on a window. Completely obscures the glass (or you can choose a pattern that lets you see out somewhat) and lets the light in. It's saved us a fortune on blinds/curtains over the years and I really like the clean look of it. It doesn't look cheap or plasticky, and most people can't tell its not etched glass.

All interesting thanks.

For the blind always down question - is it a big window - the size of an old sash and I have quite a few plants in there so they would all suffer. And the plastic surround is quite extensive so fitting it would be a handyman job which again is a cost.

I think I just need to block the lower section so I might bodge something together. I would like to retain the use of the windowsill though so cant just have a rod and a half curtain.

You could get a conservatory-type blind that fastens to the window pane. You could then just cover up the lower half of the window. We have these on our patio doors and they are good.

Our shower is next to the window and we have a showerproof blackout blind there. It doesn't completely black things out but it's enough.

We've had sticky film but you can still see through it.