SFGate

Dytecture The thickness of the fabric will determine how much privacy and transparency you'll have at night time. Perhaps a suede like material would provide a good balance for softness and room darkening.

olldbobbi orangecamera, I wouldn't want anyone seeing my silhouette, either, I'm a vey private person. Even when I have a window that doesn't need a treatment I put something there anyway.

What if you were to do both your idea, and Dytecture's? Room darkening honeycomb shades AND suede or microfiberf panels that you can close when needed? Or even thermal backed panels, they are definitely privacy providing.

orangecamera I'm always confused between "bay" window and "bow" window (and googling just confused me more). My window is not all the way to the floor, it's more like window-seat height. And deeper than the one in Dytecture's photo. So, I'd wind up with curtains inside the window-seat area, which is a look I'm okay with, but not sure how practical they'd be for me opening and closing them. I don't want to just put drapes across the whole thing (making the window shape disappear) but I may have to go that route if I can't figure out a better solution.

I'm planning to use the top-down/bottom-up honeycomb shades so I can still get some light in without opening up the view to outsiders.

Anyone know an easy way to tell how translucent the shades would be, without actually buying them and putting them through a test at home (that's an expensive test!). Do they make ones designed with real privacy in mind?

Here are pictures of the window prior to me moving in.