window treatment ideas?

[bhnumbers]

When our kitchen remodel is finished, the eating area of our kitchen will be right by the windows on the front of the house. Currently, we have light filtering, top-down/bottom-up cellular-type shades on those windows and when those are just covering the bottom half of the windows, they provide privacy while not blocking too much light.

My only issue with them is that these particular shades are now about 15 years old and they are pretty dingy so we need to replace them with *something* sooner or later. I also think they look a little dated, but can't think of another good solution there.

I definitely do not want to do plantation shutters because they will block too much light. I'm just wondering if there are cooler light filtering shades that I haven't seen yet. Any suggestions for something to look at?

[MrsDarcy]

We put plantation shutters in a few years ago and I was worried about them blocking too much light, but I don’t feel like they block any when they’re open. They’re pretty wide, so plenty of light gets through. I like this option better than the cellular shades because they could be cleaned easily.

[dr.girlfriend]

How about a very light-permeating roman shade?


We have jute roman shades that let a fair amount of light through even when closed, but I'm sure you can get more translucent ones.  They are very easy to open and close ... we just open them in the morning and close them after dark.

[boiler717]

I think a woven shade would be perfect! I made a planter box with some faux arborvitae to go in front of our breakfast nook window (outside). I tried to grow real plants but the area get ZERO sunlight so I switched to faux. Throwing that out there as a privacy idea, too.

[Deleted]

What about doing a privacy film on the windows? We did this in our 1st floor 1/2 bath because I didn't want to block any of the natural light in a very small room and I've been very happy with that decision. These days there are so many options and designs. And the great thing is that they are inexpensive and not permanent.

[sandandsea]

We have shutters and almost always have the top half open but bottom closed so we get lots of light but also privacy.