The house we have recently moved to is what you might call vintage; it was built in 1938. It has many great features; and over the years, some of the features have changed and others have remained the same.
I am certain the master bathroom has seen some remodeling; however, unlike other improvements in the home, the bathroom could use another refreshing. We plan to make some changes in the near future, but our most important issue after moving in was privacy. A prior owner had used a spray giving the window glass a frosted look with a clear border. This solution seemed to be a good enough for the tenants who occupied the home while we were preparing to sell our home. However, the last tenant removed the frosted part on one window, and the children must have picked away at the other window leaving it less than attractive. Once we moved in, we needed the light, but needed the privacy more. I had purchased some temporary blinds, and we lived with them for a couple of weeks; but I could only tolerate that for a short time.
In the mean time, I had been thinking of an inexpensive solution that would be attractive enough, private enough and easy enough for the short term until we make some major adjustments to this bathroom.
On a previous trip to IKEA, I had seen a new pattern of sliding panels and was thinking of different ways I might make the panel work for me. The panels are only 24 inches wide, and fortunately the bathroom windows are about the same size. The upper portion of the double sash windows provide enough privacy because of foliage outside, but the lower half was my concern. I did not want to install the sliding frames that are available for these panels, but did want to keep the project simple.
I purchased small, slender, cafe curtain rods easily found in just about any hardware or big box store. To give the panel some weight to hang properly, I purchased one- quarter inch steel dowels, and sewed a pocket on the top of my fabric and bottom of my panel fabric; slipped the curtain rod in the top and the steel dowel in the bottom; gravity did the rest, pulling the curtain down snuggly to the window sill.
One of the reasons this was so easy and simple is that the fabric edges, a poly or plastic of some sort, will not fray; so there was no finishing to the edges, as there would be with other fabrics. I liked this grid or checker pattern because it lent itself to a country or more modern style. I had enough fabric left to do a similar treatment on the back door window that gives both our neighbor to the north, and us a bit more privacy. The only change I made in the construction was to fix the same type of rods to the top and bottom so the bottom was firmly fixed, and would not bang on the door every time the door opened or closed. With the bathroom windows, this was not an issue and, having the bottom of the window blind not fixed, makes opening the windows in the bath room easier.
Covering three windows for under $30 feels like a good deal to me. I saved my dollars for the kitchen and dining room windows and went with linen top-down and bottom-up blinds that allow light and privacy, a win, win.