ᐅ Windows for the hallway

Hello everyone,

we are about to have our window measurements taken, but we’re stuck on one issue.
Next to the front door, we have a separate floor-to-ceiling window, and on the floor above there are two floor-to-ceiling windows.
We are building a townhouse.
The two windows on the upper floor are hard to reach; one is located in the stairwell, and the other next to a small gallery.

Now our question.
On one hand, we want to be able to look outside, but we don’t want people to be able to see straight through all the floors and the hallway when the lights are on inside. These windows will not have roller shutters.

There are curtains that are opaque from the outside but allow clear view to the outside from the inside. However, since the windows are “floating” in the air, we find it
a) difficult to access them, and
b) in our opinion, they don’t look very good.

Is our only option to order the windows with frosted glass instead of clear glass? That way, we wouldn’t be able to see out.

Maybe you have a solution for us.

Just stick a film on the inside of the windows. It doesn’t have to cover the entire window—just as much as feels “right” for you (maybe just a few strips). Good adhesive films can be found, for example, at velken.de (we ordered films there before and were very satisfied).

There are also mirrored versions of these films, which provide some heat protection during the summer.

P.S. Why not simply order windows with roller shutters? Or are all the windows without shutters, so that it wouldn’t look right?

Roller shutters are not an option for us. And the film method seems to work only when it’s bright outside.

Bauen15/16 schrieb:
Roller shutters are not an option for us. And the foil solution seems to only work when it’s bright outside.

Why are roller shutters not an option?

You have basically the following choices:
1. Do nothing. Then people can look in and you can look out.
2. Frosted/film-coated glass. Either you can’t see through it or there are issues at night.
3. Curtains/drapes. They look unattractive or you can’t see clearly through them.
4. Roller shutters. Open them when you want to look out. Close them when you don’t want anyone to see in.

In my opinion, the only option without drawbacks is roller shutters.

Do you have such a problem that you fear people looking in? What do you usually do all day in the hallway and stairwell?
We don’t have a single curtain or drape anywhere in our house. Bathrooms and toilets are sometimes fitted with films (so you don’t have to frost the entire pane and still have design flexibility). However, we have roller shutters on all windows, which we only close when we go to bed.

From how you describe the position of the windows, are these ribbon windows?
That makes me wonder why roller shutters are being planned for them.
Who among the homeowners here has roller shutters on the side window next to the front door? Maybe there is only a narrow strip of light about 30cm (12 inches) wide – how could a roller shutter fit there? I don’t know of any stairwell window that is equipped with roller shutters.
However, I also don’t know anyone who has an issue with light being visible from inside through the windows at night.
Or are we talking about large panoramic windows? Those are usually intentionally designed so that the beautiful stairwell can be seen from outside as well.
I think you might be worrying too much about privacy concerns related to windows overlooking the hallway or stairwell.
Perhaps you could simply use some elegant, playful mobiles (a hanging strip with small items like shells) inside to distract attention from the windows?

Be careful with films on windows with today’s triple glazing – depending on the orientation, the glass can break due to heat buildup.

Our carpenter and window installer both strongly advised against it – if any film is applied, it should be frosted by the manufacturer.