A Little Privacy, Please

We have a minor situation that I had been pondering a remedy for over the past couple months. I love our front door, which I think is original to the house, with its large, beveled glass panes running almost the entire height. I wouldn't dream of replacing it. But I didn't like how anyone passing by could see directly into our living room. It's like our house was giving passers-by the full frontal. I don't know if you can tell in one of the photos below, but someone of the front porch would be able to see Bert in his jumperoo. Most of the time, I just pulled down the dingy old roller shade (it looks like there's a good possibility that it is original too), but then we lost a lot of light coming into the room. And I love natural light as much as I love that door.

So, what to do, what to do? Here's where my fascination with home improvement and decorating shows pays off. I saw a designer use a frosting spray to frost glass lamps and I thought, "That would work for the door!" I told Keith and he was less enthusiastic because it seemed like a very permanent solution and what if we didn't like it? Or what if we messed up putting it on? A few days later, I was watching the Nate Berkus Show and a viewer had the same problem and he suggested frosted adhesive vinyl. Viola! The next time we were at Home Depot, we picked up a roll for about $18. After we got home, I realized it also recommended an application kit containing a utility knife, squeegee, and "application solution". Well, I figured I had the knife and squeegee and assumed the solution was a gimmick and all I really needed was a clean window.

So first I cleaned the window panes and then I cut my first strip of the film. You want to cut it larger than the actual window, smooth it on, and then trim off the excess.

Here's where I started thinking that they weren't kidding about the application solution. The first panel didn't look awful, but definitely not as smooth as I would have liked. So I improvised. I grabbed a spray bottle filled with water (whose day job is to deter Mocha from slipping out the back door) and sprayed the second pane before putting on the film. Much, much easier to smooth on and better looking results.  Using that method, I finished up the large panes. Keith and I took a look and decided that the first pane should be redone, so he went to work pulling the film off. Going really sloooooowly, he was able to pull most of it off without leaving much adhesive residue and what was left came up easily with some Goof Off spray.

I redid that pane, finished up the four small panes at the top of the door, and we were done. Start to finish, it probably only took an hour and a half (yay for a napping baby!) and I'm pretty pleased with it. Keith is on the fence. There are still a few little bubbles so it's certainly doesn't look exactly like real frosted glass, but it's nice to know we can take it off if we want. It still lets in a lot of light without letting the neighbors see in our living room.

In case you didn't catch it above or haven't seen me in awhile, I got my hair cut. Chop chop! Bert's grip was getting too good to keep long hair!