The shades you describe are available...though rather pricey! To get a cordless shade adds about 75$ to the total cost, but for the added privacy it is worth the extra cost. My friend got a bottom raising and top lowering shade for privacy in her bedroom for about 300$ in our Boston suburb. They attach with u shaped holders that can be installed behind the shade or from the top of the shade. While they are not heavy, I would suggest hitting at least one stud during installation per shade. I am also thinking about two shades instead of one long one for my side by side double hung windows so I would love to see your final choice and installation.

Back when the world was still young, we put curtains on the lower half of kitchen windows for privacy, and left the upper half bare for sunlight.

That solution might work for you.

The illustration is from a breakfast area in a large Victorian kitchen we restored 3 years ago.

We did this super-inexpensively with Redi Shade's Paper Shades. We attached a couple of small tabs of peel-n-stick velcro to the top edge of the shade and the corresponding pieces of velcro to the crossbar of our window frames. (Ours attach right under the finger latches for the tip-outs.) We use the clothespin type clips that came with the shades to keep them folded up during the day and just set them in the window sill, tucked under the lip of where the windows would open. At night we unfold them and stick the shades to the window frames. Works great. : )

Here is a link that might be useful: Redi Shades at Home Depot

This post was edited by laughable on Sat, Dec 28, 13 at 20:24

Thank you for taking the time to respond.

Unfortunately, each window needs a different "level" of privacy which is why we thought bottom-up/top-down shades are the most flexible option.

I'll take a look at the Redi Shade product.

If someone has deep window sills like we do and uses shades, please share your pics - we're curious how you installed them!

Thank you!

This should not be a problem at all. To accommodate the two sides, you use one head rail with two shades side by side. Because you use your wide sill for plants and stuff, I'd consider placing them close to the windows. Under your sheet rock there is a doubled 2 x 4 on each side and a header (maybe a 4x6 or more), so there is no problem with attaching the head rail. There are a zillion styles of shades from light filtering to blackout, bottom up, top down/bottom up, so you'll have a lot of choices. You could even do Romans.

We did cordless shades in a couple of bedrooms and found them difficult. In fact, the one in our BR broke on one side which spurred us to replace it with a much better quality shade. I much prefer the cord that attaches to the side.

I wanted to block the bottom portion of our view of our neighbor's fence and driveway so I put shutters on the bottom portion only. I like that I can still have light by tilting them but it still obstructs the view. I've had lots of compliments on them and have been told how much they like them. The shutters are white with the 2 ý tilt louvers. They have lots of different sizes these days and can cut to fit anything.