Real stories · Privacy without losing the light

The embroidered sheer curtain that stopped the street seeing in — without making my kitchen dark

A curtain that gave me back some privacy at the kitchen window without shutting out the light — that's what I'd been putting off finding for far too long. I'm 67, and our kitchen window looks straight onto the pavement. Anyone waiting at the bus stop gets a full view of me at the sink in my dressing gown. But every solution seemed worse than the problem: heavy curtains made the room gloomy, blinds felt like an office, and the old net curtains we tried made the whole house look like it had given up somewhere around 1987.

What I wanted was something light and pretty that blurred the view in, kept the sunshine coming through, and looked like a choice rather than a surrender.

Then I found the Tiverton from a British label called York Boutique — a sheer white curtain with delicate embroidered flowers, gathered up with two soft ribbon ties.

It's changed the whole feel of the room. The fabric is properly sheer, which is why the light still pours through — it softens and scatters the daylight rather than blocking it, so the kitchen stays bright while the view from the pavement becomes a pleasant blur. The embroidered flowers are the part I didn't expect to love so much: when the afternoon sun comes through, they glow. And the tie-up shape means it sits in soft gathered swags instead of hanging flat like a net — it looks dressed, not draped. It went up in minutes; you choose the top to suit your rail, and it comes in four widths.

The street can't see in, the light still pours through, and the little embroidered flowers glow when the sun hits them. My kitchen finally feels finished.

My neighbour Pat knocked within the week to ask where it was from, because she has exactly the same bus stop problem. And I've stopped doing that little duck below the windowsill when someone I know walks past, which I hadn't realised I'd been doing for years. I'd checked before ordering that I could send it back if it didn't suit the window — you can, within a fortnight, and the delivery's free — so there was nothing lost by trying.

It was £24.95 in the summer sale, half what it usually is, which for something that's on show all day every day is very little indeed.

If your window looks onto the street and you're tired of choosing between gloom and being on display, do treat yourself to a look. The Tiverton is rated 4.7 out of 5 by more than 300 buyers, it's £24.95 in the summer sale instead of £50, and the wider sizes always seem to go first.