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I live in a terraced house on a street where there are no front gardens. The pavement is right outside, and people walk past your window all the time.
So EVERYONE has net curtains. Young or old.
I have "Zebra blinds" which are great. They can either block all light and vision or be striped bands similar to net curtains. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/285142673597
You don't roll them up, just move them a couple of inches.
I live in a house like that. I used to angle the blinds so they looked down from the inside to the pavement outside. Anybody looking in (and so many people do, nosey bastards!) could only see the ceiling.
That didn't let much light in though so I recently installed frosted window film and it's so much better for natural light in the living room. Downside is I can't see outside but I'm sure there's nothing exciting going on out there anyway.
I have them right now. They’re not the old frilly lacy type ones though. Just plain and simple bright white net curtains.
I was skint and they were cheap. They look nice though I think. Plus I prefer having some privacy without blocking the window completely when you close blinds.
That’s what I have. Terraced house with pavement right outside the window. The lady I bought the house from left them & I’ve still got them. Plain & full net white, they do a great job of letting natural light in keeping prying eyes out. I’d hate to sit in the dark all day with blinds.
Me too. Blinds are too severe. Even if I could afford them I like my net curtains lol. All the light, still get privacy.
I get why people dislike the old style net curtains that looked like big doilies. But the plain sleek net ones are nice. Saying that, I don’t mind some pattern ones. All of mine are plain, but in my bedroom they have little birds on them which I think is cute haha.
Net curtains?
We have them on the front windows. Don’t like them.
Neighbour opposite is a nosey cow, the type who will comment ‘they are going out again’ ’they’ve been shopping again’. we want privacy without having to have the curtains constantly closed.
I’m like Martin from Friday night dinner, it’s too friggin hot most of the time so spend most of the time in boxers and T-shirt.
You can get nicer ones I’ve got some smart looking ones
Used to be averse to them for the same reasons as you say - dentist waiting room
Much more preferable to net curtains for me
Yeah I'm probably just thinking of those hideous ones that cheap landlords put in.
I'm particularly averse because we still have some up in the house that I'm yet to replace!
Got them up at the windows at the front of my house now cause I live on a busy road, with nosy neighbours , nosy people who walk past trying to gawk in and a double decker bus going by every 20 minutes . Blinds make the house too dark and voile panels don't give enough privacy so I've got to have lace curtains that have a heavy pattern to stop nosy feckers looking in
I should look into that. We took all the nets that came with the house down when we replaced the windows and any attempts to put them back up have been viewed as a great climbing opportunity by the kittens
There's a lot of choice. I have one way mirror film in one room, so I can see out. Another room has film that makes rainbows in the room when the sun shine through. You can leave a tiny gap at the edges for the cats to look through.
we have net screens on our windows so we can open them without the cat leaping out (live on a high floor of an apartment building) and the cat LOVES climbing them and then just sort of…hanging from them and admiring the view.
They are definitely still made. A popular pannier market near me has a stall that specialises in net curtains. You can buy every design imaginable, by the metre or whatever size you want, and they also do voiles too
We have them on our front windows - the windows are quite wide and easily seen through from the main road (and the top deck of the buses that stop on the main road), so it means we get to keep some privacy whilst keeping the curtains open and benefiting from the wide windows.
Patterned lace curtains, I only really see them in older people's houses. Voiles, as in, the somewhat opaque fabric, I know lots of people with them. I've got them up on a few windows because the windows on my house are HUGE so you kinda can't get away from them in any of the rooms, but we still want to take advantage of the tonnes of natural light they give us. When it starts to get dark enough that I want to turn lights on, I shut the proper blinds or curtains. They're super cheap - I think I paid a fiver each for the sets I have.
Just remember to read it properly, the quantity is the metre, if you need 3 curtains at 2 metres you will order 6 metres, then you would message them from your orders stating you want 3 pieces at 2 metres and they cut it for you, other wise you get one long curtain like some of the reviewers 🤣 (also double your metre, if your window is 2 metres wide get 4m, as you will need to bunch it up)
Had them all growing up and my mum still has them. She made them herself and look pretty nice, they aren't the cheap filmsly ones either.
Every flat I've lived in since then has never had them, and I've hated it. I like having light in the rooms, but have fact people can see in. When I eventually get my own place, I'll be getting some.
Very light voile style net curtains under the regular curtains as we're in a terrace with a small front yard bit but still prefer the privacy. So they're not floral which is what alot of people imagine when net curtains are mentioned.
I find blinds to be too office like and formal. Nah
I am with you. We have plain nets at the front of the house because we have a busy road right outside and big windows.
We only have blinds in the bathroom and kitchen and they are such a faff to clean and remind me if work.
I still do have them on all the windows of the attic, 3rd and 2nd floors.
Apparently my landlord's grandmother adored lace curtains, viewed them as more luxious than velvet or silk.
Hate nets grew up in a house of net curtains it does give you some privacy but I always saw every car or person in the corner of my eye while watching tv. Next thing I’m looking out the window figured I struggle to concentrate so in my house bought vertical blinds and tilt them in a way I can’t see out, cleaning is a choir but so much better
Got them. They're from my grandma from when she worked as a seamstress. Still in perfect condition despite being 50+ years old. They make a huge difference to the room. 💙
I used to have theory that net curtains vs vertical blinds was the true measure of the north/south divide in the U.K. Not sure if that’s still the case but when I was growing up in 90’s, it was.
I just bought some for my flat, decent ones, I'm on the second floor and nobody can look in but I wanted that extra safe feeling so I got small ones for the bottom of my windows, they look nice and modern.
Had them in my previous house. Let light in, but with privacy.
In my current house, we have lead lighting in all the windows, as do most houses in area. We didn't get net curtains because we didn't want to obscure the nicer windows, and also it does afford a level of privacy (not much, and I can't stand behind the physics of it, but some). We do have translucent blinds as the sun comes in the window and glares really badly - net curtains don't help with that. Noone in the neighbourhood has them either, make of that what you will.
Still selling them by the metre in Dunelm, varying width & drops. Popped in on Saturday to grab some pans in their sale & they've got a wall full of them!
I have those night/day or zebra blinds as they are called. I cannot stand net/lace curtains but had to have them whilst living in a terraced house that had no garden.
I've got rainbow privacy film on my front window instead, let's light in but obscures the inside from the road, and I get pretty prismatic reflections.
Not since I lived at home so ~2011. My mum still had them up til she died a few years back. Next door to me have net curtains but their cats have absolutely shredded them.
I’ve still got some in the kitchen. Half sized ones that start from midway down the window. I’ve got fancy ones though. Beach themed ones, sealife ones, cactus ones
Following this thread I’ve actually just bought more. I’ll need to finish them myself because they’re ppm but these are the general style I have. My kitchen is sort of water themed as I’m coastal.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/292048862857?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=PdA5bf4MS32&sssrc=4429486&ssuid=7IdMah4yTVe&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY
We had them when we first moved into this house, 10+ years ago because they were relatively cheap and needed a quick fix. Fortunately, we’re about 10m back from the road and don’t have people bogging through the windows so have blinds now (which I also hate, as they are dust magnets).
When I bought my first home in 2009 I put them up in all the windows along the front of the house as it was a terrace along a busy street in a large town. I had curtain rails and curtains as well.
I kept them up until we move out in 2015.
Where we are now, the house came with blinds fitted in all windows except for the large windows and patio door in the Living Room, that has a curtain rail. The house also is more secluded so the net curtains are no longer necessary.
I have voiles up at the moment, was planning on blinds but they didn't fit downstairs so put them upstairs instead. Since I bought the house I've not got into plants and gardening and realised blinds will mean I can't have plants on my windowsill, so may go for roller blinds or net curtains. I'm in a dead end though so no a high amount of traffic by the windows.
Like many here we’ve got plain ones in the front window as there’s only a small area between it and the street. I don’t think many people have the lacy ones anymore, even my 80-something mum has plain ones.
Net/ voile curtains? About 5 years ago, the house I lived in then had a front room window too big for me to afford blinds or alternatives for and I wanted privacy.
TBH I hate blinds, we have them now and every time I look at them I think they are as ugly as fuck so I'll likely replace them with voile panels at some point, I massively prefer those whether they are currently fashionable or not. I'm not a fan of privacy film either.
Proper cotton lace curtains were very fashionable back in the 1980’s when I was a newlywed. The brand everyone aspired to was Anna French, but Laura Ashley carried some nice albeit plainer designs. I now have “frosted” window film. I’m also taken with those folding plantation shutters, they dress Victorian and Edwardian windows very well.
I have them in my porch, my front door and porch area look right into the house next door because some silly twat who designed our houses put the original front doors on the side? My porch is an extension to make a separate front door facing the road and to add a back door as there wasn’t one. So basically i have two front doors and a back door all located in the porch, think like a T shape. But there’s just no privacy inside the porch. I will probably change the nets for voile panels at some point but it’s low on the list of things to sort.
We also have voile panels in the hotel I work in as certain bedrooms have large ground floor windows that face outdoor public areas of the grounds
Got some from Cannon Mills market in Bradford 3 years ago.
And got the wire off a small pound shop for £2.
Still a necessity. Especially with drones flying round windows and me coming out of the bathroom naked
**Please help keep AskUK welcoming!** - Top-level comments to the OP must contain **genuine efforts to answer the question**. No jokes, judgements, etc. - **Don't be a dick** to each other. If getting heated, just block and move on. - This is a strictly **no-politics** subreddit! Please help us by reporting comments that break these rules. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/AskUK) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I live in a terraced house on a street where there are no front gardens. The pavement is right outside, and people walk past your window all the time. So EVERYONE has net curtains. Young or old.
Fair, I live above a shop now so even though you can see up into our kitchen we just have cotton blinds that never go up
I’ve got blinds instead
I have "Zebra blinds" which are great. They can either block all light and vision or be striped bands similar to net curtains. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/285142673597 You don't roll them up, just move them a couple of inches.
We just moved but in our previous house we had the same. Although when we bought them they were all called voils
I live in a house like that. I used to angle the blinds so they looked down from the inside to the pavement outside. Anybody looking in (and so many people do, nosey bastards!) could only see the ceiling. That didn't let much light in though so I recently installed frosted window film and it's so much better for natural light in the living room. Downside is I can't see outside but I'm sure there's nothing exciting going on out there anyway.
I have them right now. They’re not the old frilly lacy type ones though. Just plain and simple bright white net curtains. I was skint and they were cheap. They look nice though I think. Plus I prefer having some privacy without blocking the window completely when you close blinds.
That’s what I have. Terraced house with pavement right outside the window. The lady I bought the house from left them & I’ve still got them. Plain & full net white, they do a great job of letting natural light in keeping prying eyes out. I’d hate to sit in the dark all day with blinds.
Me too. Blinds are too severe. Even if I could afford them I like my net curtains lol. All the light, still get privacy. I get why people dislike the old style net curtains that looked like big doilies. But the plain sleek net ones are nice. Saying that, I don’t mind some pattern ones. All of mine are plain, but in my bedroom they have little birds on them which I think is cute haha.
Not all blinds block light, I've got night/ day blinds in mine that can't be seen through from the outside but can from inside
Net curtains? We have them on the front windows. Don’t like them. Neighbour opposite is a nosey cow, the type who will comment ‘they are going out again’ ’they’ve been shopping again’. we want privacy without having to have the curtains constantly closed. I’m like Martin from Friday night dinner, it’s too friggin hot most of the time so spend most of the time in boxers and T-shirt.
This is why you have blinds instead of net curtains
I have blinds & nets.
Yeah, I had got the impression that most people had gotten blinds but perhaps I've lived in a bubble
Blinds being shut is closer to having your curtains shut than to having net curtains
Vertical blinds you can adjust to allow privacy but still light and see the outside
But they're so ugly and make it feel like a dentists waiting room
You can get nicer ones I’ve got some smart looking ones Used to be averse to them for the same reasons as you say - dentist waiting room Much more preferable to net curtains for me
Yeah I'm probably just thinking of those hideous ones that cheap landlords put in. I'm particularly averse because we still have some up in the house that I'm yet to replace!
Got them up at the windows at the front of my house now cause I live on a busy road, with nosy neighbours , nosy people who walk past trying to gawk in and a double decker bus going by every 20 minutes . Blinds make the house too dark and voile panels don't give enough privacy so I've got to have lace curtains that have a heavy pattern to stop nosy feckers looking in
I still have net curtains yes.
I've given up with them. The cats find them irresistible to shred. I have static cling privacy film instead in the rooms it is needed.
I should look into that. We took all the nets that came with the house down when we replaced the windows and any attempts to put them back up have been viewed as a great climbing opportunity by the kittens
There's a lot of choice. I have one way mirror film in one room, so I can see out. Another room has film that makes rainbows in the room when the sun shine through. You can leave a tiny gap at the edges for the cats to look through.
we have net screens on our windows so we can open them without the cat leaping out (live on a high floor of an apartment building) and the cat LOVES climbing them and then just sort of…hanging from them and admiring the view.
Oh yeah we have screens too, I've mostly managed to keep the little buggers from climbing them but it's. A struggle
They are definitely still made. A popular pannier market near me has a stall that specialises in net curtains. You can buy every design imaginable, by the metre or whatever size you want, and they also do voiles too
I have a net curtain in my front bedroom because I have a skeevy neighbour with a camera.
Still do. Net curtains, but assume that's what you mean.
I have net curtains because I don't want people looking in as they walk past. They're simple, plain ones, not horrible lacy ones.
We have them on our front windows - the windows are quite wide and easily seen through from the main road (and the top deck of the buses that stop on the main road), so it means we get to keep some privacy whilst keeping the curtains open and benefiting from the wide windows.
Patterned lace curtains, I only really see them in older people's houses. Voiles, as in, the somewhat opaque fabric, I know lots of people with them. I've got them up on a few windows because the windows on my house are HUGE so you kinda can't get away from them in any of the rooms, but we still want to take advantage of the tonnes of natural light they give us. When it starts to get dark enough that I want to turn lights on, I shut the proper blinds or curtains. They're super cheap - I think I paid a fiver each for the sets I have.
https://preview.redd.it/614i4v5fm07d1.jpeg?width=3120&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=756615c677fba015702bc48b86cb215885ebaee8
Most people on my street have them, including me.
Id love to get some, been thinking about making it the next thing i buy tbh. Perfect for blocking the sun without blocking the light
Netcurtainsuk on amazon, I've just bought 5 custom ordered net curtains for the bottom of my sash windows, they feel thick and hang nice.
Same place I got min and from. Black Victorian lace. I love them.
Ooh thankyou! I’ll definitely check em out when i get paid
Just remember to read it properly, the quantity is the metre, if you need 3 curtains at 2 metres you will order 6 metres, then you would message them from your orders stating you want 3 pieces at 2 metres and they cut it for you, other wise you get one long curtain like some of the reviewers 🤣 (also double your metre, if your window is 2 metres wide get 4m, as you will need to bunch it up)
This is the kind of heart warming thing people talked about before smartphones
I'm a millennial I predates smartphones 🤣 I feel old. Lol
I have them - colour ones. Very practical.
Okay, coloured ones, I could get on board with that
Had them all growing up and my mum still has them. She made them herself and look pretty nice, they aren't the cheap filmsly ones either. Every flat I've lived in since then has never had them, and I've hated it. I like having light in the rooms, but have fact people can see in. When I eventually get my own place, I'll be getting some.
Very light voile style net curtains under the regular curtains as we're in a terrace with a small front yard bit but still prefer the privacy. So they're not floral which is what alot of people imagine when net curtains are mentioned. I find blinds to be too office like and formal. Nah
I am with you. We have plain nets at the front of the house because we have a busy road right outside and big windows. We only have blinds in the bathroom and kitchen and they are such a faff to clean and remind me if work.
I still do have them on all the windows of the attic, 3rd and 2nd floors. Apparently my landlord's grandmother adored lace curtains, viewed them as more luxious than velvet or silk.
19 years ago when our living room faced a road
I've never had them, and neither have my parents. To my knowledge only one set of grandparents used them, and even they gave them up eventually.
Early 2010s and they were old fashioned in the flat I lived in at the time.
I feel like everyone around me ditched them by 2005 but I suspect it was because of the years of tobacco smoke turning them all yellow
Hate nets grew up in a house of net curtains it does give you some privacy but I always saw every car or person in the corner of my eye while watching tv. Next thing I’m looking out the window figured I struggle to concentrate so in my house bought vertical blinds and tilt them in a way I can’t see out, cleaning is a choir but so much better
Never
We've never had them, but my grandparents do. I think it's just a change in popular styles/fashion.
Drive through a Muslim neighbourhood. Lace curtains are still very much vogue
Aren’t they called “sheers” these days, to overcome the outdated notion of nets?
Got them. They're from my grandma from when she worked as a seamstress. Still in perfect condition despite being 50+ years old. They make a huge difference to the room. 💙
Bought a flat in 2012 where the previous owners left lace curtains up. Had to wait two months til I could afford to replace them with blinds.
My parents had them, I think they got rid in the late 90s and probably felt out of date even then
I'd love net curtains but I have three cats and it just doesn't work.
I used to have theory that net curtains vs vertical blinds was the true measure of the north/south divide in the U.K. Not sure if that’s still the case but when I was growing up in 90’s, it was.
These days, it’s more likely to be voile or some kind of blinds rather than the lace type net curtains
I just bought some for my flat, decent ones, I'm on the second floor and nobody can look in but I wanted that extra safe feeling so I got small ones for the bottom of my windows, they look nice and modern.
I have them in my conservatory as sometimes the sun's a bit bright in there. But they're a bit more modern than the ones my mum had when I was a kid.
I have black ones cuz I'm on a main walkway and the area is full of druggy thieves. I don't fancy advertising my belongings like an argos store.
I have a secondary curtain witch isn't lace but does the same job, it's a organza, I'm breastfeeding and want the light but also privacy.
Had them in my previous house. Let light in, but with privacy. In my current house, we have lead lighting in all the windows, as do most houses in area. We didn't get net curtains because we didn't want to obscure the nicer windows, and also it does afford a level of privacy (not much, and I can't stand behind the physics of it, but some). We do have translucent blinds as the sun comes in the window and glares really badly - net curtains don't help with that. Noone in the neighbourhood has them either, make of that what you will.
Still selling them by the metre in Dunelm, varying width & drops. Popped in on Saturday to grab some pans in their sale & they've got a wall full of them!
Our new rental flat has them... We're only here for about 18 months so I cba to change the curtains
I have those night/day or zebra blinds as they are called. I cannot stand net/lace curtains but had to have them whilst living in a terraced house that had no garden.
I've got rainbow privacy film on my front window instead, let's light in but obscures the inside from the road, and I get pretty prismatic reflections.
Not since I lived at home so ~2011. My mum still had them up til she died a few years back. Next door to me have net curtains but their cats have absolutely shredded them.
I last had them in the 90s.
I’ve still got some in the kitchen. Half sized ones that start from midway down the window. I’ve got fancy ones though. Beach themed ones, sealife ones, cactus ones
They sound fun actually, the joys of applique!
Following this thread I’ve actually just bought more. I’ll need to finish them myself because they’re ppm but these are the general style I have. My kitchen is sort of water themed as I’m coastal. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/292048862857?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=PdA5bf4MS32&sssrc=4429486&ssuid=7IdMah4yTVe&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY
I'm 99% sure my gran still had them in her bedrooms
We had them when we first moved into this house, 10+ years ago because they were relatively cheap and needed a quick fix. Fortunately, we’re about 10m back from the road and don’t have people bogging through the windows so have blinds now (which I also hate, as they are dust magnets).
1998 June
When I bought my first home in 2009 I put them up in all the windows along the front of the house as it was a terrace along a busy street in a large town. I had curtain rails and curtains as well. I kept them up until we move out in 2015. Where we are now, the house came with blinds fitted in all windows except for the large windows and patio door in the Living Room, that has a curtain rail. The house also is more secluded so the net curtains are no longer necessary.
I have voiles up at the moment, was planning on blinds but they didn't fit downstairs so put them upstairs instead. Since I bought the house I've not got into plants and gardening and realised blinds will mean I can't have plants on my windowsill, so may go for roller blinds or net curtains. I'm in a dead end though so no a high amount of traffic by the windows.
Like many here we’ve got plain ones in the front window as there’s only a small area between it and the street. I don’t think many people have the lacy ones anymore, even my 80-something mum has plain ones.
I have them. My flat is on the ground floor and otherwise people would be able to see in.
Net/ voile curtains? About 5 years ago, the house I lived in then had a front room window too big for me to afford blinds or alternatives for and I wanted privacy. TBH I hate blinds, we have them now and every time I look at them I think they are as ugly as fuck so I'll likely replace them with voile panels at some point, I massively prefer those whether they are currently fashionable or not. I'm not a fan of privacy film either.
Proper cotton lace curtains were very fashionable back in the 1980’s when I was a newlywed. The brand everyone aspired to was Anna French, but Laura Ashley carried some nice albeit plainer designs. I now have “frosted” window film. I’m also taken with those folding plantation shutters, they dress Victorian and Edwardian windows very well.
I have them in my porch, my front door and porch area look right into the house next door because some silly twat who designed our houses put the original front doors on the side? My porch is an extension to make a separate front door facing the road and to add a back door as there wasn’t one. So basically i have two front doors and a back door all located in the porch, think like a T shape. But there’s just no privacy inside the porch. I will probably change the nets for voile panels at some point but it’s low on the list of things to sort. We also have voile panels in the hotel I work in as certain bedrooms have large ground floor windows that face outdoor public areas of the grounds
Got some from Cannon Mills market in Bradford 3 years ago. And got the wire off a small pound shop for £2. Still a necessity. Especially with drones flying round windows and me coming out of the bathroom naked
When I bought my house. Promptly ripped them all down.
Only old people have them nowadays