Easy Frosted Windows

As seen in the daylight.

I live on a big avenue, so there are a lot of pedestrians and cars peeking into my workspace when I forget to close the curtains.


I've made my studio more private by frosting the windows.

As a bonus, I don't need to use the curtains anymore, and the frosting seems to diffuse and bring more light indoors in the daytime. My plants seem to love it!

I didn't want to use toxic chemicals such as spray can products, so I looked online for some tips. Those articles I saw were asking for supplies I didn't have, so I wondered if I could make it simpler.
I had plenty of acrylic medium, and to make it blurry-frosty, I just gradually mixed in a lot of baby powder (talcum).

I applied it on the clean window with a big but soft brush with synthetic hair, changing the direction of my brush to make sure the pattern would not repeat and look too organized. I applied three coats, and kept patching areas that were a bit too thin, which only showed once they were dry.

The stuff scrapes well with a plastic spatula, so I'm not worried about damaging the windows.

I'm happy with the results, but I'm wondering what it would look like with a color instead of just the white-ish frosting. To avoid redoing it all, I'll just try with a large sheet of transparent colored plastic, when I find some.

For a shadow puppet look, one can place black or other opaque silhouettes directly against the glass, indoors. At night when the indoor lights are on, they would show up well.

It's a bit more dramatic than this at night, with streetlights.

Enlarged to show texture, with some shadows from outside.