Do you have any "naked" windows?

DDD

Well-Known Member
More and more often I read that getting rid of shades and/or curtains makes your space seem larger. Makes sense BUT what to heck gives you privacy???????? Are home windows getting treated with a film that prevents outsiders from viewing in? Certainly people are "living" in view of whoever passes by? Are they? DDD
 

Fran

Former desparate mom
The front of my house has windows with mini blinds. Almost all the rest are naked because it's pretty private. My biggest worry is sun and heat.
 

hearts and roses

Mind Reader
I hate bare windows. I just hate the feeling of being seen or being exposed! When I'm in my jammies at the end of the day, I want to be able to walk around in private. We live on a corner, somewhat busy, and I close everything up every night.

That said, my sister has nothing on her windows and it does make the rooms appear larger, more spacious.
 

donna723

Well-Known Member
I don't think I could handle 'naked' windows! Maybe in the kitchen, but nowhere else. For one thing, to me anyway, windows without something up there look a little bleak, or it looks like you took the curtains down to wash them and haven't put them back up yet. And I live right on the corner of two fairly busy streets. I kind of prefer that the whole town wasn't staring right in watching everything I was doing! I have sheer lacy panels on my living room windows which let in all the light and at least partially obstruct the view to the inside.
 

Suz

(the future) MRS. GERE
I have mini blinds on all of my windows as well as curtains. The blinds are up during the day so the light can come in but they are closed in the evening/night for privacy.

Suz
 

susiestar

Roll With It
I still don't have curtains I like, but I couldn't STAND windows without a covering. While nekkid windows (Ethel - git yer clothes on!) might make the room look somehow bigger, I think curtains can add another dimension to the room, making up for the "loss" of space.

One thing that can make a room look bigger is to hang the curtains above the windows almost at the ceiling and have them come all the way down to the floor. I have been watching some programs on HGTV and have really liked the way that looks.

We are just too casual to deal with people able to see all in our home. Esp with a 13 yo daughter who looks easily 18 even without any makeup on!!!

Tooooo many teen boys in the neighborhood!

Anyway, I hope you can find curtains you like. They can sure add insulation to the windows, cutting on the heat and air conditioning bill.
 

muttmeister

Well-Known Member
No naked windows here. Although I live in a rural area, I still don't want people or cows or goats or deer or whatever staring in at me. Second, I don't like minimalist decor so bare windows would not fit with the style of my house. Third, it is hot here in the summer and cold in the winter and window coverings can help keep the heat and cold out. My living room and dining room have drapes, one bathroom has curtains plus a wood wide slat blind, the other bathroom has curtains plus a roller shade, the mud room has a valance with a roller shade, the kitchen has only a valance, the computer room has match stick blinds with a valance, the guest room has curtains with roller shades, and my bedroom has a valance with black-our mini blinds because I like to sleep late in the mornings.
I see places in magazines with bare windows and they look neat for other people but I can't imagine living with them!
 

1905

Well-Known Member
My kitchen window is naked. It looks out onto my backyard, full of trees and blue sky. We have a large yard with a stockade fence. Nobody can see in my house. It does make the kitchen look brighter, and bigger. The rest of the house that faces the back- same thing. The front has curtains. I don't want anyone looking in.
 

Hound dog

Nana's are Beautiful
Well at the moment my livingroom windows only have mini blinds because I refuse to put up my new expensive drapes until Nichole moves out. And my bedroom windows in the house are also only covered by miniblinds. Travis is too hard on curtains. Nichole didn't want any. And I've just never gotten around to buying any. Just realized I'd neglected that area not too long ago. lol

Family room has bare windows, oh about 15 of them. Which is why they are bare. :rofl: Do you know what it would cost me to cover all those windows?? But they only look out into the back yard which is privacy fenced.
 

flutterby

Fly away!
Growing up we used to have naked windows. Until we had a peeping tom when I was 15 (and the guy had a 14 year old daughter :sick:). That stopped naked windows.

The picture windows in my kitchen and living room have shutters that go halfway up the windows. I like that better than blinds.
 

witzend

Well-Known Member
The two inch venetians at Home Depot are close to the same price as mini-blinds these days. They fool the eye from the outside so that people can't really see in when they are open. If you get the bright white, they let in a lot of light. Bare windows appear black at night, and seem to really close things in to me.

I do have some opaque white film on one window that looks like frosted glass. I like it quite a bit. It's actually to keep us from having to look at where the neighbor's cat poops on their chimney 8 feet outside my dining room window. But, I like it. There definitely is not as much light coming through, though.
 

mrscatinthehat

Seussical
my kitchen windows are naked but otherwise I am pretty much a cover em up person. with most of the neighbors I live near I don't want the peaking in. At this point even my front window (huge) is blocked not only by curtains but by book shelves so no one can peak
 

KTMom91

Well-Known Member
Our front yard is much too small to leave the windows uncovered. I bought Roman shades for the living room, in ivory, and it brightened things up much better than mini blinds.
 

Marcie Mac

Just Plain Ole Tired
Nothing up on my dining room windows. I am going next payday to buy some blinds though - don't care if people look in, but its a royal pain in the tush because Dan's Pit, her favorite place to lay is the dining room table and starts making a ruckus everytime she sees someone walking up or down the street, which starts off the other three dogs, and of course the little bird sounds the alarm if anyone in the family drives up the street or comes up the walkway. Once they start, the parrot starts screeching "Shut the H(ll up", setting off the dogs in a frenzy.

I like the no drape look, definately makes the room bigger. The more light the better. Have curtins in the our bedroom only because SO likes it dark but I hate it, I like being woke up with sunlight on my face, and there is blinds on the front bedroom windows - I live on a corner and any car comming up at night hits the windows with the headlights.

Marcie
 

Marguerite

Active Member
Naked windows - bad for energy conservation. The place heats up in summer and loses heat in winter.

Something we have learned in our heat Down Under (and which we seem to have to work hard to teach some people from Europe and the US) - on hot days in summer, we CLOSE the windows and CLOSE the blinds/curtains to block out the light. Because light = heat. And too often, the "cool breeze" outside is hotter than the temperature inside.

I used to get in to work insummer to find my (Russian) co-worker had hauled up the venetians and thrown open everywindow, and the place was a hot box. Too late to shut it all up by then... and of course he complained about the heat all day. If I got to work first, I would insist on keeping the place closed up. But if he succeeded in throwing it all open while I was out of the room, of course it would heat up again. And he would blame me for it, saying it was hot because I'd previously had the place closed up!

We did eventually convince him, but it took a few summers.

Marg
 

SRL

Active Member
Our big front window is naked. I pitched the rod and curtain when we painted two years ago and never got around to replacing it. It seemed explosed at first but it's not ground floor and we got used to it pretty quickly. Nothing much outside of reading and talking takes place to be of interest to passes by. I agree it contributes to an open, clean feel.

Having said that, as soon as my husband stains the new window he put in late last fall, I am going to do something about new window treatments.
 

klmno

Active Member
No naked windows in this house- unless you want to count my bedroom which only has the shades on them that were here when I moved in. That's because I have never found the "perfect" curtains to put over them. Sigh.....

If I had a large house with a room that no one could get a view into (like a family room in back) or a formal living room that was rarely used, I could probably handle leaving the windows naked, but it would never fly in this house!

I visited a house once where they had large, transparent, windows in the master bathroom and left them naked. There was no view but I still didn't think I could ever get used to that.
 

goldenguru

Active Member
We live in the middle of nothingness. I have nothing on my living space windows. I do have blinds in my bedroom/bathroom but I rarely if ever pull them. I love the feeling of the outside being inside.
 

Lothlorien

Active Member
Our windows are fairly low, so the upstairs windows have shades and curtains, except Mighty Mouse has shades and sheers, as he is in the back of the house and it is very private. All of the downstairs windows in the front are covered with sheers or curtains and we pull them at night.

The only nekkid windows are the ones in my kitchen (also back of the house). My kitchen is painted a burnt orange and only gets sun in the morning. Since the back of my house is pretty private, I feel fairly comfortable not dressing those windows. I have valances at the top, so they aren't totally nude.
 

timer lady

Queen of Hearts
Too cold in MN to go with-o blinds/drapes of some kind. My living/dining rooms both have gorgeous blinds I purchased from JC Penneys that are open during the day (unless it's very hot); over the blinds I have lace valances. My kitchen has shade cellular blinds - no valances. My bedroom is like my living & dining rooms.

Upstairs (which tends to get much warmer in the summer) I have the energy efficient drapes - does the trick in summer & winter.

I lived in the country growing up ~ we had window coverings, didn't really need them. I live in an urban area & definitely need the window coverings but try to make them a part of the decorating scheme. AND on a cold winters night I love to be snuggled in my house with all the windows covered ~ makes me feel warm.
 
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