The Bon Vie in Scottsdale

[PixelPixie]

Matthew and I very much enjoyed our tour of the grounds at The Bon Vie last weekend.

http://www.modernphoenix.net/thebonvie.htm

These condos are darling and efficent. In other words, small, but cuter than cute. Perfect for a single person or DINK couple wishing to take part in pedestrian life in Scottsdale. When my dad lived there, he said he walked everywhere downtown. Everything is literally Right There.

Though I have to wonder with those floor to ceiling windows, what different and creative ways will folks deal with finding privacy from the public walkways? We had the same issue in an old condo of ours where at night you could see straight through the place and spy all of our domestic activity.

[nichefindyours]

Pixie,

I wonder if it would be allowed by the association to put frosting on the lower 2/3s of the windows. I have seen this done on other homes and it looks very nice. It lets the light in during the day and gives you privacy at night.

[matthew]

Great Idea. The folks that moved in the Simple House in Sunnyslope did that.

[jklabar]

Is this frosted window film easy to find?

[PixelPixie]

There are all sorts of cheesy stained glass contact films of all sorts of colors at your Local Home Center (as The New This Old House calls it), but Matthew can best answer where to get plain old frosted white vinyl.

I'm not sure where I saw this, whether it was reality or a dream... but didn't somebody cover their windows with the translucent onion skin of a dress pattern? Was that the slope house again Matthew?

I think Anthropologie used a similar treatment one or two years ago -- not on thier windows but inside as curtains in their retail space. The effect was very feminine and lovely but also industrial and no-nonsense.

http://www.mccall.com/

Or you can really go DIY and print out the exact hues you want on overhead projector acetate on your home printer.

http://www.pixelpixie.net/observations11.html

I will admit this is one of the most hilljack installations I have ever made, but nobody ever lifts the white blind, so its just an illusion.

Total cost: $35.

Total effect: priceless.

[matthew]

OMG, that is funny. You should all see it with the blind up!

Anyhow, You should get the window film from a sign shop. I can recommend a shop (my brother has a shop) and the beautiful thing is that any sign shop has the cutters where you can get a pattern cut into the vinyl really easily. Ask me further questions if you really want to go down this route. Grids, retro-jetson boomerangs, whatever is possible easily...

The dress pattern? That was a dream dear.

I can also recommend specific places to order film yourself. Installation is a little tricky but not really that hard if you use something called "Application Fluid".

[PixelPixie]

It was all a dream!?!?

Damn.

It was a good one.

Steal my ideas, for free.

[jklabar]

you two are hilarious!

pix -- i thought the window effect was very cool, but i don't think we'll have the luxury of masking it w/blinds. well, it's really more of a choice not to rather than a luxury.

matthew -- i'd love to hear more about various options and your brother's shop! right now, there are only a few doors in the house we're thinking of "covering", but i'd like to hear/see what you have in mind.

[matthew]

Issue #1: Sign shops are a good resource, however they are unlikely to want to get involved in installation because this is kind of a non-standard job for them (at least my brother would not want to). You could talk look up window tint companies that do residential and commercial applications. They are more likely to be interested in installation...

Issue #2: If you want something cut, it has to be designed on a computer. You could design it yourself if you have the ability to create CAD drawings or generate Adobe Illustrator (or perhaps CorelDraw) document. You could show sketches to the window tint or sign company and have them design it.

You would need to design something that allows for slight misalignments in installation. The vinyl would need to be cut a bit oversize and then trimmed in place with a knife. What is around the edge of the window? Is there a rubber seal? If so it will be hard to trim to that so I would think you would want to lay a straightedge just inside the seal and cut the vinyl off 1/8" back from the rubber, or something like that. Am I making any sense?