Letting in the light into your home can be a strangely fraught activity; if you throw open your curtains to a busy street, it can feel like living in a fishbowl. Yet, there’s a murkiness and staleness that comes from not letting enough light in. So, how do you reconcile the opposing options in a way that allows light in while also protecting your family’s privacy?
Below are six privacy-protecting tips designed to let the brightness enter your home, and let your decor shine.
Sheer Joy
When it comes to year-round, versatile privacy enhancement, you can’t beat sheer curtains. Sheer curtains provide your space with unobtrusive privacy cover, while also allowing in light and air.
Sheer curtains come in an array of colors and tones, and are easily switched out as the seasons (or your decor) requires, making them a relatively cheap and long-lasting investment.
Green With Envy
Plants make an amazingly affordable, stylish and well-credentialed candidate for your property’s privacy protector. In order to select a plant to use as both a decor enhancement and as a privacy aid, you will first have to consider the space available in your home, and how environmental factors such as light and temperature may affect a plant.
Once these considerations are taken into account, it’s time to select a plant. Choose easy-care options such as peace lilies and lucky bean trees if you’re not a well-trained green thumb. For more lush foliage (with an associated higher level of care) select a stylish fiddle-leaf fig or a ficus. They flourish with the right light conditions, and will provide your space with both green freshness and added privacy protection (when placed appropriately, of course).
A well placed wreath on a door can provide privacy if your door has glass windows on it.
Art Attack
Art objects also make wonderful privacy enhancements.
Fabric paintings make great window adornments, and sculptures can create physical barriers when living in close quarters. Choose a piece which enhances your decor, while also providing you with the required level of protection you desire.
Screen Queens
Privacy screens are another way to create a more private environment, while also creating separation in a larger space. Privacy screens are particularly useful in situations like share-housing and rental homes, where costly permanent additions may not be a feasible option. Screens can be elaborate or minimalist, artistic or utilitarian.
Some decor divas even utilize objects such as shelving units or bookcases as room dividers and screens. Your space, individual taste and decor will influence your choice – there are no limits to what you can choose to use to create a privacy screen.
No Holds Barred
Decorative metal bars and awnings have long been used on the outside of windows and doors to enhance home security, but they can also add to the decorative appeal and overall visual narrative of your space.
With a greater array of options available than ever, decorative awnings, bars and shutters can enhance your home decor by adding flourishes and design cues in a non-intrusive fashion (think of art nouveau swirls on metal bars, or of candy-striped awnings or wooden shutters). Your choices for outdoor security enhancements may help to pull-together the entire feel of a room, and to create a cohesive whole.
Plantation Fascination
Plantation shutters also offer a privacy-protecting fashion for your space. They offer the extra benefit of being able to block out light, meaning that they can also help to regulate the temperature of your space.
Plantation shutters add a hint of casual, contemporary style to your space – they’re the quintessential ‘beach house’ window fashion, and they can lighten up the feel and mood of most rooms while also providing a functional, fashionable privacy provision.
Protecting your privacy while also creating a sense of openness in your home has never been easier. Armed with an array of privacy-enhancing options, you can be assured of your most chic, comfortable home.
