How to get privacy in a bathroom window

Do you have a window that is hard to reach or one where you crave privacy above all else? I'm talking about those round, half-circle or octagonal windows in a tall foyer or those windows that are in your bathroom or above your soaker tub?

It can be hard to figure out what to do with these windows. Do you put window treatments on them? Nah, seems strange to do that in a foyer when you can't even reach the window. And what about that bathroom dilemma? Do you install blinds or shades on the window and keep them closed 80% of the time?

I've discovered what I think is a better solution and it's a solution I used in my own home.

First off, my master bathroom. It has a large window on the wall behind the vanity and while it is about four feet off the ground, you can't help but feel like you need more privacy. I love stained glass, so we hung a piece of art glass in the window. Unfortunately, it left plenty of viewing area around the sides, so it didn't give the privacy we desired.

Since we love art glass, we decided to have to Sheri Law Art Glass Ltd. design something simple for the lower half of the window only. Sheri Law doesn't specialize in just beveled and traditional stained glass, although she does great work with them, but she creates all kinds of glasswork, including antiques mirrors, carved and etched glass, glass for entryways, transoms, backsplashes, bar mirrors and more.

We had an idea of what we wanted before we even visited her showroom in Homer Glen, Illinois. We wanted to create a diamond pattern with beveled glass that would match the transoms in the kitchen of our house.

Sheri gave us what we asked for and took it one step further. She found a diamond shaped beveled glass with a pattern that gave us the privacy we wouldn't have gotten from clear beveled glass alone.

Her design was ready a few weeks after our initial consultation and it was installed over, yes over, our existing windows in about a hour. It is portable art; if we ever sell the house, we can remove the beveled glass and take it with us. Alternatively, if someone buys our home and doesn't care of the glass, they can remove it and revert back to the original window.

We loved how it turned out and we're so happy we didn't have to resort to a shade or blinds. This way, we can let the sunlight in all day and look at the glass sparkle when the lights are on at night.

In my next post, I'll show you what we decided to do in the staircase.

For more information about Sheri Law Art Glass, visit her website here to look at examples of her work.