Of Bookcases and Windows

Spent the evening experimenting with window and bookcase treatments. Writing all this at night, and will add photos in tomorrow when it's light.

The living room window has been driving me right up the wall. I need something that will give me privacy, as my neighbors frequently do yard work between our homes, but that will also let in light, which is (after all) the purpose of a window.

I've played with curtains, blinds, and shades, but I couldn't find anything I really liked. A few months ago I played with pasting pink tissue paper to a piece of plexiglass and sticking it to the window, and it was the best treatment by far. Trouble was that the tissue didn't want to bond to the plexiglass long-term. Everything would be fine unil I tried to jam the plexiglass into the window frame. The plexi would buckle a little, and the tissue paper would slide off.

Today in Target I found a new tissue paper I fell in love with, so I bought it home determined to try again. After thinking about the problem for a while I decided to just stick the paper directly to the glass. After all, we're talking about a bond created with liquid starch. I can clean up failure without much grief.

Couldn't find the starch anywhere, so I settled for very watered-down Elmer's glue. I taped the paper into place on the window with two small pieces of Scotch tape, and then used a paintbrush to paint the glue mixture on the paper.

It's dry now, and so far I don't like the results. By night it looks cheap. It might be better tomorrow, but I doubt it. I can see bubbles in the tissue paper from where I started rushing the process, and this particular paper has a glittery sheen to it that highlights every error. The pink mullberry paper with its rougher texture would have been a better choice, but I can't find what I've done with that paper! Will have to go back to Target tomorrow and purchase another pack.

I've been thinking for a while about doctoring the bookcases in the living room as well. They're OK, but they're backed with bead board, and I'm not really a bead board girl. So I purchased a sheet of foam core, cut it to fit in a shelf, and painted it with leftover latex from the bedroom and stuck it to the back of the bookcase with double-sided tape. The color doesn't pack much of a punch in this light, but hopefully tomorrow it will look better. I want to play with a blue shade, too, so I can match the living room wall. Once I get the right color I'll buy more foam core and repeat for all the shelves. At least the lines from the bead board are concealed, which was my main goal.