Making second floor windows opaque for privacy

Here's the situation. My daughter has sheer curtains on her second floor windows. After a number of years in the room, she's now concerned about people being able to see in when she's changing. I'm planning to get some patterned window film to help. Do you think both the bottom half and top half of the window need to be covered? It may seem like a silly question but it seems like covering the whole window wouldn't be a good idea.

Bottom half is enough.

You can also just get a tension-rod and hang a "cafe curtain" halfway up the window, at the lock rail on the window frame (if it is a double-hung window.)

Re: bottom and top half --how close is nearest neighbor's house? Are their windows at an elevation that is higher than those in your daughter's room? Is there an attic room overlooking her room?

Answers to those questions will give you the answer.

Since we're talking about curtains, I want to put in a plug for this company's Indian/Moroccan sheers:

http://www.saffronmarigold.com/catalog/directory.php?cPath=25

I put the Royal Mansour (a patterned white) in my bathroom window. It lets a lot of light through but you can't see anything from outside except maybe a slight hint of a moving shape. Very nice fabric and workmanship and sooo pretty. It took me a ridiculous amount of time to pick a pattern.

has your daughter expressed a preference for how much she would like covered? If she has a preference, follow it.

i would want the whole window covered...never know when someone will be playing with a drone in the area...

is there a reason you/she are against a more solid curtain/liner that can be closed while she is changing and then opened the rest of the day?

Shades or blinds?

Let the light in when she wishes and keep the room hidden when she wishes.

One man's thoughts.

TomR

how about just a simple roller shade that can be up and out of the way when she doesn't need it? Otherwise we did durawood 2 inch horizontal blinds in our girls' rooms. They stay down most of the time but easy to control to allow light in or close completely. I ordered from JC Penney online and we've had them for ten years.

I find myself prefering the window films/clings as they require less maintenance and I don't have to worry about wind blowing them open or pet tails dragging them open while trying to dress (yes, my dog did this to me!). We used a stained glass version in our bedroom and it allows plenty of light while blocking view. We did both tops and bottoms. The drone point makes sense or if she has neighbors with ladders.

We used the film in our bathroom, second floor, only the bottom. There are all kinds of pattern options online, and they come in a tube to roll out and cut to fit. Its like a sticker, not a cling film.

Blinds or curtains would allow the window to be open if there is a need to know what is going on outside -- flashing red lights or whatever.

We recently bought a standard window blind from Blinds To Go. One unexpected aspect is that it is possible to hold the bottom half of the blind down, while opening the top half of slits to let in light, thereby allowing for some second floor privacy, without closing the entire blind. If I had known about the window clings years ago, I might have gone with that option, although the blind allows an easy adjustable setting of none, half or all light/shade.