How I Added Privacy to My Dark Living Room Without Sacrificing Natural Light

Looking for a stylish way to add privacy without blocking natural light? See how I used linen Roman shades to filter unwanted views, make my windows look taller and add softness to an already-dark living room- all without spending a fortune on custom window treatments...

Now, y’all know that in my eleven years of blogging, I’ve only done a handful of sponsored posts.

I’m not exactly one to take free stuff for the hell of it (if something doesn’t make sense for my home or for you guys, I’m simply not interested).

This post is sponsored by Freshine, who provided the Roman shades featured in this space. As always, all opinions are my own.

So when Freshine approached me about a window treatment collaboration , I did what I always do first: vetted the company, stalked the reviews and made sure this was actually a product I felt comfortable bringing into my home.

And as luck would have it, this was one project I genuinely needed to tackle.

You see… our living room windows were still sporting the same inside-mounted cellular shades that were here when we bought the house nearly five years ago (I will have a picture of them near the end of this post). And while there was technically nothing wrong with them, they were never something I would’ve chosen myself.

Two of these windows face our neighbors’ house, and while I have absolutely nothing against my sweet neighbors, I don’t necessarily want to stare into the side of their house every time I’m sitting on my sofa. The problem was… whenever I pulled the cellular shades down to screen the view, they also blocked a substantial amount of natural light. And with a living room color drenched in Iron Ore by Sherwin Williams, light is a bit of a precious commodity in these parts.

But blocking natural light wasn’t my only issue with the old cellular shades. You see…

Nearly every room surrounding our living room has tall, vaulted ceilings. However, this room has standard-height ceilings, and because of that contrast, they’ve always felt especially low to me (hence why I also painted the ceilings the same color as walls)

So while I was replacing the shades anyway, I figured I might as well use one of my favorite little design tricks to visually stretch the room upward (more on that later).

After analyzing review photos and sifting thru fabric samples for what seemed like weeks, I ultimately chose the Elara Roman Shades in “Light Grayish White“. The linen-blend fabric was exactly the soft, organic texture I wanted against the Iron Ore walls, but the most important decision I made for these particular windows was ordering them unlined so that they blocked the minimum amount of natural light.

Of course, not every window in this room needed to accomplish the same thing.

Take this awkward, skinny window overlooking our front porch…

Unlike the other two windows, this one is positioned where someone standing on our porch can actually see into the living room. So here, preserving every last ounce of daylight wasn’t nearly as important to me as having actual privacy (mainly from the persistent pest-control salesman that won’t take no for a freakin’ answer).

This is where I really appreciated how customizable the Freshine shades are. I ordered the exact same Elara “Light Grayish White” fabric for a cohesive look throughout the room, but chose a 30 percent lined version for this window instead (the liners are available in 30- 100 percent shading rates of your choice).

While the shades do come in a motorized version, given my Golden Retriever’s propensity to destroy any remote he gets his paws on, I played it safe and went with the cordless lift instead.

Not only do I love the fact that I now have privacy from the pest-control salesman and some much-needed screening from our neighbors’ house (while still preserving all of that precious natural light), I absolutely love how much these linen shades softened the room.

But even better than all of that, ya’ll? The price tag.

Yep…for all three custom-sized Roman shades, the total came in at around $500. Considering they were made specifically for my windows and I was able to customize everything from the lining and mounting style to the lift option, I thought that was pretty damn impressive.

And before we go, I wanted to give you a little behind-the-scenes look at one of my favorite hacks for creating the illusion of taller walls and bigger windows.

As I mentioned earlier, this living room has standard-height ceilings, while nearly every room surrounding it has tall, vaulted ceilings. As a result, this room has always felt a little vertically challenged by comparison.

So instead of mounting the new Roman shades inside the window frames like the old cellular shades, I chose an outside mount and installed them as high toward the ceiling as I reasonably could (about six inches above the actual window).

Take a look at this very glamorous in-progress photo of the shades being installed…

On the right, you can see how the old inside-mounted cellular shade emphasizes the actual height of the window. On the left, mounting the Roman shade well above the window frame tricks your eye into reading the shade (and therefore the window) as much taller than it actually is.

And because your eye is now drawn upward, the trick doesn’t just make the windows feel bigger, it helps the walls (and even the ceiling) feel a little taller, too. No vaulted ceiling renovation required!

Between the filtered natural light, added privacy, soft linen texture and the illusion of taller windows, I honestly couldn’t be happier with how this little window-treatment update changed the feel of the entire room.

For anyone struggling to balance privacy with preserving natural light, I hope this project gave you some ideas you can use in your own home.

Thank you so much for stopping by this week, and a special thank you to Freshine for providing these beautiful roman shades!

If you found this post helpful, it would meant the world to me if you could “pin it” on Pinterest or share with a friend…

Until next time, keep on designing a life that feels as good as it looks!