Nets or no nets

I have wooden slatted blinds, more to keep the sun out of our big windows than anything, it gets so hot.

You've answered your own question, NanKate - obviously it does worry some people if people can look into their windows from the front garden or road.

I only have net at the sitting room window and our bedroom. The first because it is a full length full width window and I feel like a goldfish without them. The second because I don't want an audience when I pull back the curtains while in my 'night clothes'

Nankate
Privacy is the answer.
I don't have nets but vertical blinds.

My house is in a close with three roads and our front window faces straight out down the central road. Open plan front gardens and no hedges.

We have a through living room with a big window at each end, which makes that room just like a goldfish bowl.

Add to that we face west and need to shut out the evening sun or we can't see the television and you get the picture.

I like certain amount of sunshine but blinds or such are also useful in keeping the house cool in hot weather, you can keep the worst of the sun out and stop the bedrooms from getting too hot. The alternatives are drawing curtains which makes it too dark.

In the hot summers we had a few years ago I went continental and closed the blinds as it got hot.

Someone on the telly years ago said that net curtains deterrered burglars.

They probably filter the sunlight too. I have vertical blinds so that I can tilt them when the sun is bright and save the carpet from fading.

Aren't voile panels just posh nets?

Yes merlot and I think the term now is 'sheers'. Sounds less bourgeois than nets, doesn't it.
I have them at all our windows, partly for privacy and partly to regulate the amount of sun coming in. I can pull them back if I want a lot of light and draw them if I don't.
I think in the winter they reduce heat loss too - our sitting room has two big picture windows.

I have blinds of various sorts wooden slate, roller and vertical depending on the room and the need for privacy or light filtering (to be able to see TV). Like most people I used to have nets for much the same reason but they were a chore to take down every month - which they needed to keep them white and get rid of insects. I like the idea of some expensive lace panels wafting around French doors overlooking a beautiful terrace and walled garden. We juts have to be practical- if we didn't have blinds in the conservatory for example it would be unusable in the summer.

I'm amazed that so many of you need to keep the sun out to prevent the house getting too hot.

#coldscot

No nets!

We are lucky in that all our front windows are tall rather than wide but I hate the feeling of being closed in that comes with nets!

I was just thinking the same, baubles. During any hot warm weather we get it is cooler inside our house than out. I suppose that means the walls are effective insulators. We don't do hot here.

My house is similar to thatbags, it is cooler in than outside. I have nets at the windows because I would be like a goldfish indoors. It is open plan outside but the front gardens are small. Although I have fencing outside at the rear, I would be seen by people living at the rear of the road close by. If I lived in the middle of nowhere rather than in London, I would not need nets.

I've never seen the need for net curtains. As with baubles and bags my house is colder inside than out, it faces east and doesn't get a lot of sun even though we are on the top of a hill. Also I live in a small rural Northumbrian town, with only one bungalow as my neighbour.

My little terraced house is only feet from the pavement and I made pretty voile curtains for the front windows when I moved in. I've now replaced them with vertical blinds downstairs and left the voile in the spare room. I really don't want passers-by to see what a slob I can be!

I don't like nets and try to avoid them, but I have twice used them in our bedroom, when it could be seen into from the bedroom of the houses opposite. In one case the lady in the house opposite was a little odd, to say the least, among other things she used to make silent calls to me, until I learned to recognise and ignore them.

When DS had a house with a window to the pavement, he put a large vase of artificial flowers on the window sill. It stopped people seeing in but he could still see outand still got a lot of light. I have seen large model sailing ships standing on tables under windows on houses with similar problems. Cuts the view but not the light.

Like almost everything in life, it is simply a matter of personal preferrence, isn't it. Most of my windows have either vertical blinds, nets, or voile panels. I don't like people looking in at me, that's all. Harmless.
Each to his own.

It took me years to convince my then 'newish' husband to get rid of nets, I hated the things and he had them at every window, finally when we moved I threw them all away and convinced him that blinds of various sorts were fine.. as for burglars well nowadays you don't need to see inside to know that most of us have all the usual valuable items , tv, laptops, ipads etc etc etc .
Honestly you have to literally be looking right in the windows to see what's going on inside, from the pavement houses look dark inside and not much of anything can be seen, try looking into your neighbours from the pavement next time you are outside. Different of course if you literally have no front garden or the lights are on but I just tilt my blinds during the evening and then close them at bedtime.. I wouldn't go back to nets and I live in London on a road that has plenty of footfall at school time.

Yes, if you tilt the blinds slightly the other way no-one can see in, the angle is wrong but you still get the light.

Yes, it does get too hot in the south. Our house stays at roughly 25 to 26 C all summer long indoors, and that is with the south-facing blinds closed and all south-facing windows firmly shut to not let any hot air in.

In the past I bought cotton lace curtains, rather than nets and draped them so that they covered most of the window. I bought huge lace tablecloths and bedspreads in Tenerife and used them over doors and larger windows. I was determined not to end up with greying fly-trodden nets.

Nets used to be the thing to use [years ago] so I used to have them at least for the bedroom. However, most of our present house is private, so we only need vertical blinds in the south facing lounge, mainly so that we can watch tv [impossible on a sunny day otherwise.]It also gets rid of glare and heat, and we close them completely in the height of Summer, and it keeps the place cool.However, net, or lace/voile can look pretty, but it has to be very white.

I have 'nets' at the bedroom windows that are at the front of the house as the windows are very large (width and drop) but I have the nets/voiles/sheers on tapes with curtain hooks so that they can easily be opened and closed - they tend to be closed for privacy when dressing but other than that, they are left open as we all prefer the windows unshrouded (also gives a nice tonal touch to the window as they sit slightly behind the main curtains). Anyone who peeks in the downstairs windows is treated to a smile and a cheery wave

Up until last weekend we had nets in the bathroom and downstairs loo in spite of the frosted glass because said glass was minimal and both windows look out onto quite a busy thoroughfare. We now have window film and the rooms are so much brighter.

DH has done the 'outside test' and says he can't see me on the loo even with the light on and I certainly can't see out but I'm still a little unsure. However there have been no crowds outside viewing so far - at least I don't think so. Thank goodness most passers by have their noses attached to their phones

I have dingey old nets at my bedroom window. People can see very clearly in otherwise as the ground slopes steeply upwards from my house. A neighbour once looked very deliberately in when I was walking around in the nude.

I've been meaning to do something else for ages. Not blinds as the window is rather wide. I am wondering if voile panels are supposed to be flat on the window or gathered.

Oh, gathered, petallus. We have some at the window through which someone could just about peer in and see into the downstairs loo, if the door was open!

They're on one of those thin curtain poles.