Garden Window and Privacy

2009-07-03T12:11:00.000-07:00

I am often approached as a designer about privacy concerns. Because houses today’s are being built using every square foot of the lot there isn’t much room for landscaping.

Fences are often put in as privacy screens but what happens when the fence isn’t high enough and really, who wants to look at a boarded wall that close?

As a designer, I no longer have the luxury of designing lavish rolling lawns and gardens to separate to spaces, so I have found the most cost-effective way to create privacy screens and give greater shelter is to divide spaces into cozier nooks by growing green walls in the form of hedges. This allows for a creative blank green canvas between you and your neighbor and allows for endless height restrictions. Arborvitae are my tree of choice because they make a great screen and hedge thick or thin beautifully. You can find them at your local Home Depot Store, they are fairly inexpensive and with a good water system they grow rather fast.

When your garden window happens to be on the fence line or even with the neighbors windows pravicy becomes an even a bigger problem. Garden windows are meant as a design feature to bring light into a dark area. They create an illusion of bringing the inside closers to you. With the assumption that the space is already a dark small area which prompted the need for the garden window in the first place . I would start with making sure your colors on the walls, floors and ceilings are light and pale in color. To create a large more open feel of your room.

It would be detrimental to start filling up your garden window with plantings and items because it would once again make your room look small and enclosed. Take all your items out of your window. Add a transparent clear self-adhesive decorative window films with a pattern to the window. Remember to keep the pattern to a minimum as this is just an accent to block out a visual we want light to continue to come in through this window. Faux Décor & More has a large selection of these films and great designs.

When filling your garden window back up do so as if you were decorating a table keep it to a minimal with only a few accent pieces. Be creative.