I live in a room where there is a transparent glass covered slot above the door. I want to cover it up but I don't want to make it completely opaque as it is the only way it wakes me up in the morning as sunlight enters through it!
So I am looking for an idea like spraying water or moisturize the glass so that outsiders cannot see me but sunlight can enter. Any help is great!
If you need this to be easily removable I suggest you make up a saturated solution of salt and water (keep adding salt until the salt won't dissolve any more) then spray it on the window. When it dries it will do a dandy job of scattering light. Removing it is a simple matter of wiping with a wet paper towel.
It is very usefull (and cheap btw) where nothing can be see through it by eyes, but sun (or light from another room) can pass it.
So we talking about privacy window films.
You can find it (in my country) almost on any bookstore. It so easy to set it up, or to remove when you don´t need it anymore.
Craft stores, when I was a kid, carried a paint-on glass coating that dried to a crystalline appearance. The colorless variety blocked very little light, but it scattered very effectively -- meaning nothing behind the painted pane was visible as anything more than a blurred blob. I don't know if this stuff is still sold, but I don't know any reason it wouldn't be, unless it was found to be carcinogenic in the past fifty years.
If you don't need it to be reversible, you can make a glue chipped glass. It is traditional, so don't know if it even counts as hack, but is fast, simple and cheap.
Buy animal glue. Bone glue, fish glue, the kind that needs to be applied hot. It's cheap (may vary from area to area) and can be found in art stores, woodworking supply stores etc. It is also needed in musical instruments repair. There is a chance you or your friend already have it, if you like to tinker with wood.
Prepare it as described on the package.
Wearing safety goggles and gloves, paint your glass.
Go get a cup of coffee when glue cools down and hardens.
Remove glue. Again, wear goggles and gloves. With glue, your will also remove very thin chips of glass. Random patterns may look like ice, floral patterns etc, or like nothing particular, but no one will be able to see thorough.
This method is traditional, and glass will look good for decades if not centuries.
You can even add some patterns yourself - if you put leafs on the hot glue, and press them firmly, they will "guide" how glass chips. Results are not exactly predictable, but that's the beauty of it.
Somewhat similar to the tissue paper suggestion: waxpaper. It is cheap, quick, and less likely to tear than tissue paper.
A Mexican recipe for home made glue, probably the cheapest reversible and multipurpose solution to your problem: (walls won't stop the peeping toms, but dirt cheap Mexican engrudo will!)
About 1liter (1/4 Gallon) strong natural methylcellulose paste adhesive, non-toxic if accidentally ingested.
In a pot, dissolve some of the flour in a little water until there is no lumps. Add some more water, then more flour untill both ingredients are fully mixed with no lumps (if you try to do it all in one go, you'll get a lumpy mess)
Bring the preparation to a low heat and stir with a wooden spoon. Continue stirring until it begins to boil, and at that point, remove from the heat. Let cool, add the vinegar and mix.
If desired, add a few drops of vegetable coloring of your choice.
Without coloring, the end product will be an off-white tacky paste, (yellowish color approximating the hue of the flour used). When applied to glass, it will behave as a light diffusing, translucent coating.
For this project, probably the best result will be using some
sort of light wide woven fabric, such as the emergency bandages you can
find on any first aid kit. A decorated tablecloth is also great idea (see pictures for what to expect of the finished project)You can also use paper (very thin) for translucent effect or even leaves and cutouts such as depicted on other answers in this thread.
You'll need enough to cover the surface of the glass to be privacy- enhanced. Just soak the bandages or paper on the engrudo, saturating them. Then apply and spread over the glass.
Use a wide paintbrush to apply, or, if you know how to handle them, you > can use a spatula to even out the fabric or eliminate bubbles.
Applying first coat on glass, applying a decorated tablecloth, creative application of cheap old newspapers on glass:
Let it sit on a well aired room. Curing times are comparable to commercial white glue. May vary depending on the grain of the flour used (coarse = slower fine = faster) but YMMV.
When done, you can store the unused engrudo on the fridge for about a week. After that, dispose with the rest of your biodegradables. Remember to label it for storage while in the fridge. It's not toxic, but not particularly tasty either.
Guaranteed to keep the baddest hombres from peeping if properly applied.
Excellent for everyday tasks requiring adhesives. will bond strongly on Paper, cardboard, wood, and particle boards, calcium substrate ceilings and porous stone or masonry.
Not so good for bonding plastic, synthetic materials or smooth non-porous surfaces such as glass or walls coated with acrylic enamel. On these surfaces you may need to reapply after a few years (therein lies the reversibility of this project)
Engrudo will perform competitively against similar fossil fuel based solutions (I'm looking at you, white glue) on chores such as furniture and upholstery repair, wallpaper application, detailing creative art using wood, paper or cardboard, etc.
All this with the added advantage of being non-toxic, biodegradable and fun to make, plus it's dirt cheap.
You may have all the required ingredients and tools already laying around in your kitchen.
To reverse your privacy-enhanced glass, just tear off the fabric using a spatula or knife to remove stubborn residues, specially where glass meets masonry or wood. Most of the cured adhesive will just fake off the glass when pulling the fabric. This will be relatively easy and leave no permanent stain or mark because Engrudo will bond poorly with glass.
By heating the water and flour mixture you are creating a cellulose rich saturated colloidal suspension, When you ad vinegar, it w will react with the acetic acid. This chemical reaction will yield a dense methylcellulose solution having specific shear thinning viscosity and a high wet adhesive tack.
It bonds particularly well with other cellulose rich materials, since cellulose will form long interwoven molecular strands, that extend the existing strands on paper or wood, effectively "fusing" the materials in a process analogous to that of arc welding in metals, or the action of cyanoacrylates on resins and plastics (superglue!)
A slightly lighter mixture of engrudo (diluted with a bit more water for larger yield, increasing absorption on paper), Is still used to soak printed kraft paper posters on it, and then applying to walls/masonry on public buildings for advertising purposes.
It's applied using a long paintbrush resembling a broom, taking the just soaked on engrudo poster and spreading it out on the wall surface. Engrudo will bond with the masonry, trough the porous paper and the end result is a nearly indestructible advertisement. Wooden telephone posts are used for this purpose too, with subsequent applications taking advantage of the substrate created by older layers of engrudo soaked posters. (Just apply the new poster on top of the older ones.)
I've seen maintenance crews sandblasting old advertising affixed to churches and public building walls using this technique.
Examples of nearly indestructible advertising:
How about one-way mirror film?
You can apply that to your existing windows. With your home inside generally being darker than the outside, it would let a good amount of light in while looking like a mirror to outsiders.
The downside is when the inside of your home is much more brightly lit, the one way then becomes transparent. But you can fix that by reversing behavior with a window shade - open the shade when you turn out the lights to go to sleep. Close the shade in the evening when you need privacy and it's dark outside.
You could experiment with white glue (eg. Elmers school glue) diluted 2:1 or 3:1 and a bit of dishwashing soap.
It may not last all that well if your windows get condensation.
You could also try aerosol hair spray- maybe you have some around.
A really cheap answer would be to cover the glass with thin white paper (tissue paper) or cloth (thin scarf, handkerchief, j-cloth) or plastic (a supermarket bag).
You can use pins or thumbtacks or use a water-soluble glue so you can get it off again someday.
It doesn't have to be white. Try using different colours. You can combine your material in a mosaic to make a stained-glass effect, which would be cool when the sun shines through it.
Stores in Usa such as Wal-Mart sell sheer drapes that are blackout. Alternatively, try a dollar store pop open style winshield visor, which would be the least expensive, and easily removed. A third option is to (for removability sake) put a few ruff+fluff dots (ex., Velcro(TM) ) above your subject window and matching dots on a large pillowcase or fabric layer shower curtain cut-to-size. When not in use, hanging ends can easily tuck in above edge. Ruff+fluff is easily removed afterward. Or fashion ties out of leftover material to secure drape out of the way. In Alaska folks often use regular tinfoil to cover windows. Tape on the glass removes easy, and its cheap.
I'd suggest taping some bubble wrap over the window. You can probably scrounge some for free. And as an added benefit, it increases insulation.
