A room with a view (that sometimes needs to be obscured)

The first thing that attracted me to my current flat was the windows: full height, south facing and stretching across two walls of the living space. Being six floors up I can see the horizon, which feels like such a luxury in central London. They are always the first thing visitors gravitate towards so that they can check out the view. Honestly, there is nothing I love more than being curled up on my sofa on a miserable day with a blanket and being able to watch as the weather rolls in and seeing the rain clouds in the distance or the fork lightening over London. It always takes my breath away how big the sky seems and being able to see so much of it is something special.

Room with a view 1

Image via: I Love Bokkie

Obviously I would prefer that our views were of woodland, rolling hills or water as far as the eye can see rather than the neighbouring apartment blocks and the towers of Canary Wharf in the distance but you can’t have everything in life, right? The house on the sea or the cabin in the woods will have to wait. The fact is having views of any description in the middle of a city is a big bonus and makes a massive difference to how spacious the flat feels. When we moved in I was determined not to cover up an inch of the glass and so they remained blindless and curtainless for a good few months, which seemed like a great idea at the time. I have always loved waking up to masses of light as I am such a morning person and it is the time of day I feel most energised so walking into a living space flooded with light always makes me happy.

However, the joys of being blinded by the light from the windows and being caught one too many times by our neighbours in less clothes that we would like meant we had to re-think the whole “our windows are amazing and it would be a sin to cover them up” thing. I think it was one Saturday morning when we had had one too many drinks the night before and we couldn’t escape the pounding heat and rays of the sun sealed it for us. We needed some way to cover our windows in as subtle way as possible.

We decided to go for blinds as curtains offer no flexibility – they either have to be drawn, completely blocking out the light and views, or not drawn. Whereas there are some very clever blinds out there that can give you the best of both worlds and you can control the amount of light/privacy. Luxaflex have a great collection of blinds that fit the brief, for example their newly launched Twist shades. With two layers of fabric the Twist shades allow you to position them completely open, half open or closed so you control the light, how much of the view you can see and how much privacy you have (I’m telling you, some of our neighbours really need these as we see far too much of them!). See how they work here…so clever.

Full height interior wooden shutters in living room | Making the most of your windows | Luxaflex shutters | Apartment Apothecary

Interior shutters from Luxaflex

Another stylish option is interior shutters as these are much more flexible than curtains as you can tilt open the louvres as much or as little as you need to and they create a real focal point in a room in the way that blinds can’t always. I’ve hankered after shutters for ages as I love the way they look as well as their practical features.

So, back to beautiful windows that you would definitely want to make the most of…if we ever build our own house one day I reckon the position and size of the windows will be one of our first priorities.  Until then though, I will have to make do with our inner city view and cover up the windows as and when we need to.

I have been making a Pinterest board of beautiful windows for lots of inspiration and I will be adding to it over the month. You have to take a look as it will make you swoon…

Beautiful windows and rooms with a view | Apartment Apothecary

Click through to the Pinterest board.

Sorry, hope those views haven’t distracted you too much! Watch out next week as the lovely folks over at Luxaflex will be offering a great prize for one reader to help make the most of your windows.

Katy x

*This post was written in collaboration with Luxaflex.

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10 Comments

  1. Emma B.
    10th November 2016 / 12:47 pm

    Those twist shades are very clever. I suppose a bit like shutters in the way you can have them ‘half open’ but better in that you can pull it up completely (I’m always a bit turned off by shutters because I worry they would block too much light as we don’t have space to open them up completely). Hmmm, defitniely something to think about 🙂

  2. Maria Leighton
    10th November 2016 / 1:58 pm

    I would kill for one of those enormous picture windows. Amazing! But yeh, you’d definitely need to cover them at some points I’d imagine. I love interior shutters…so french and stylish x

  3. 10th November 2016 / 2:03 pm

    Ooh I love these twist shades they look great. Yep beautiful views would be totaly dreamy! x

  4. 10th November 2016 / 2:28 pm

    I love the view from your apartment, but I think I’d need some privacy too. These blinds look like a great compromise so you don’t lose too much of that gorgeous light but you can hide away when you want to.

  5. 10th November 2016 / 6:38 pm

    I’d love to have a property that required window shutters to frame a beautiful view!

  6. 10th November 2016 / 6:54 pm

    I’ve always wanted some shutters! Love these X

  7. 10th November 2016 / 8:51 pm

    I love Luxaflex- these are the exact same reasons we chose them for our living room. The Pinterest board looks soo good too!

  8. 10th November 2016 / 9:18 pm

    I used to love the view from my old flat over sussex boat club. I heard recently that they are building flats which will block that view which made me feel so sad. And I realised that view was an important part of making my old house feel like home.

  9. 11th November 2016 / 10:13 am

    Haha We have enormous windows too and couldn’t afford any blinds or curtains for the first year so I feel your pain at flashing your neighbours!
    Those shutters are beautiful though. Really timeless.

  10. 11th November 2016 / 7:42 pm

    I love the idea of those blinds. I have a large window in my livingroom and it looks out to a view of the house across the street. We currently have vertical blinds which I hate with a passion. My husband often closes them fully during the day which annoys me so much. So those twist blinds sound perfect for us.

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