I think even a 5% openness factor will let people see in at night with the lights on in the room. One thing my shade guy suggested was to have two shades, one with a higher openness factor for daytime and a blackout version for nighttime. (Can you tell he's a good salesman? LOL!) You can hang both inside the window box if your window is deep enough or you can hang one inside and one outside the window box. Of course, you could also have roman shades, draperies or some other window covering to augment the solar shades at night.

We have solar shade screens on our home. We did so for heat reduction as well as grass hoppers can't eat them. Not that that would concern you. Just a fact others might find useful. If we are between the light source and the window one can see shadows, but that's about all. During the day if lights when lights are not on it's almost impossible to see in without having ones nose against the screen. I would think having the shade version would make it even harder for one to see inside especially from the distance between buildings.

We are planning solar shades (designer screen shades I think Hunter Douglas calls them) for our Master bedroom. We put them in recently in the guest bathroom and the office without a liner/second shade, but the window treatment guy suggested "micro-pleats" to use behind the solar shade in the bedroom. We're not worried about privacy there (windows are in the back and driveway side of the house, upstairs), rather, we want the ability to darken the room/prevent early-morning sunlight from coming in through the solar shade.

HTH!

Will it look "wrong" to put Hunter Douglas pleated shades/blinds in a craftsman style house? We need the privacy because of close proximity to neighbors and they seem to be the only solution that allows us top/down, bottom/up opening when we want to open windows and still have privacy. We are also thinking of silhouettes for living area.
I get a a little hung up with trying to stay with what would have been used in these houses, but roller shades and sheers don't seem to meet our needs.

Sorry! I meant to post this as a separate post.

I have solar shades (exterior sheerweave 10% solar shades) ordered from blinds.com in Espresso color). They are installed on the exterior of my living/dining room on the balcony side of the windows. They provide excellent visibility in day time from inside. But for me privacy was not an issue as we are on a hill and nobody could look into our house.

I put solar shades in my computer room. You can definitely see through them at night, into the house. Basically you can see into the house at night as well as you can see out of them in the daytime. I have hedges that keep my yard private but even at that I kept the pleated curtains that were on the window already and occasionally use them. If you are doing an inside mount on the solar shades you could do something like an outside mount roman shade that would still be a clean look when pulled up but give you privacy when you need it.

Just installed Graber solar shades in our bedroom. The salesman assured that you can not see thru them a night with 5% visiability!!!! Oh well, looked beautiful in the day but, when we came home at night and we put the lights on in the bedroom from outside you can see right in!! The salesman is coming back becauseWe are very unhappy. Should have done more homework on this. Any suggestions??

Two different window coverings will always be the best answer. Everything else is a compromise...ie...top-down bottom-up, zebra blinds, etc.