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The boat, when purchased new, came with concertina blinds on nearly all the windows... Just a few were omitted. Absent was any way to cover the Cockpit door, and the windows either side, nor the little removable triangle windows over the fridge and radio panel. Additionally the rear of the forward facing full width windows had no blinds. We felt that the absence of blinds from the cabin to the cockpit was a privacy issue. It's not like we hang out naked in the dining area - but if you need to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night, or have guest sleeping over in the converted dining area - we wanted some privacy for when at a dock.
The only window we didn't care about covering was that full width (upper/rear) window - the most anyone passing was likely to see was our heads unless they were aboard the boat peering in.
Identifying that we wanted some window cover was the easy part - now what to install.. It needed to be something that would allow the door to open and close without issue, that was lightweight (Obviously), and not too difficult to make (and ideally not too expensive). Also the windows were some pretty odd shapes; either the top and/or bottom of most were not horizontal. Neither was the top generally parallel to the bottom of each window.
Maryanne spent ages looking at other people's boat, walking the isles of Lowes and Home Depot (DIY/Hardware) type stores. But nothing really looked like a good solution.
Eventually she came across (In Lowes) a possible solution. For decorating they make a temporary concertina window blind, intended to be fixed in place with adhesive tape at the top, and set to the open/closed position with the use of plastic pegs. They were VERY inexpensive (given the disposable nature) and were made out of either paper or fabric (depending on what version you wanted). The are called "Redi Shades", and the idea is you simply cut them to the width and length you want - stick them up and can cover the windows wile decorating without ruining your expensive curtains. Once done, you can just pull them down and throw them away.
The prices were all less than $10, and they came in various sizes. These are not high end quality, but we thought they were worth a try. We purchased two, each 48"x72", cut them to size, installed snaps at the top and bottom, and elastic ties at the top to store the shade in the open position. The concertina nature of the blinds makes the odd shapes (non-level top and bottom mounts) a non-issue. The blinds have been installed on the
Once we have used them for 6 months or so, we will have a better idea if they will hold up, but we don't think we will be opening and closing them too often - so they should be just fine.