Making a Privacy Window

The builders of our house apparently thought it was a great idea to put a big ol' window in our shower/tub. That window has been a problem for me for years. When we first moved in, I didn't know what to do with it. You can't exactly put a regular curtain or blinds in there due to all the water. I wound up hanging a white shower-curtain liner in there that had been cut off to fit. Not exactly high design, but the window faces the side of the house and is only seen by our neighbor.

But I've never liked it.

I started doing research a few weeks ago into window films. I know; they sound, well, not exactly nice, but we need to cut down the red-tip photinias on the west side of our house. Their roots are messing with our pipes. My craft room and our bathroom have windows facing west, and those red tips do help cut down on the sun that comes into the house in the afternoons. I need a new solution to help with that, hence the window film research.

After reading and watching online tutorials, I decided to go for it. We did the bathroom window last week with privacy film.

Our supplies:



The finished project:



It's made a huge difference in how the shower looks! So much nicer, and it'll be easier to keep that window-ledge area clean without a curtain there. I'm pleased that it doesn't look cheap or trashy as I'd feared it might, but actually looks great! It was surprisingly easy to put up, but it's definitely a two-person job.

I don't think the privacy film is intended to cut down on utility bills, but it will filter some of the sun coming in, as well as keep eyes out of our shower! Hopefully, we'll tackle the craft room next with some heat-control window film, but we may have missed our window of opportunity (pun not intended). The instructions say to put up film when temps are between 40F and 90F. We're over 90 here now.

I'm all about inexpensive home improvement when possible!