I have a French door as the door to my bathroom; I purchased window film on ebay and applied to all but the top row of panes. It was easy and inexpensive

They do make sprays the etch the glass to make it look frosted. You can buy them at any craft store.

I have seen the window film at Home Depot. Online, I have seen very designs from plain somewhat opaque to leaves, swirls, and other designs. It doesn't look too hard to apply, and it has the advantage of being removable if you change your mind.

I am dealing with something like this too. This summer a tormado took out the tree between our house and the neighbors, which left our bathroom window in plain view. I don't like bathroom blinds so I have been looking into what else is available .

One option is to have the glass sand-blasted or chemically etched. Works well but definitely permanent. A second option is the film that others have talked about.

The third option and the one I am trying is a product called Gallery Glass by Plaid. It is a liquid that you put on glass and it dries translucent. It comes lots of colors, which can also be blended. If you are artistic, you can actually create some pretty cool stained glass looking designs right on the window. Since I am not that artistic, I bought a pre-made design Gallery Glass design of a heron at a craft fair and some of the "crystal clear" color to smear on the window. The crystal clear dries clear but creates a waviness so that light comes through but things are distorted (kind of like hammered or rain glass). So far it is working great, but I haven't had it up long enough to know how it will withstand over time. One nice thing is that if you don't like it, it can be removed fairly easily (at least that is what they tell me). If you Google "Gallery Glass" you can get more info.
Disclaimer: I have nothing to do with the company, I just recently tried it for the fisrt time, but so far I think it will work just fine.

Hmmmm.....another thought. It would look even more like stained glass if you used adhesive lead strips to outline the design then filled it in. I might even have to play around with that to see how it looks. I only wish I had at least one artistic bone in my body.

We are using a glass-paneled door for our master bathroom and will be using the window film mentioned above. I am probably going to get the 3M stuff rather than the Home Depot/Lowes product though.

We also have windows in our shower, which I did order with privacy glass. However at one point I contacted local glass manufacturers about options and it IS an option to bring the sash in to them and they will replace one of the panes (assuming it's double-paned glass) with privacy glass and replace the gas between the panes as well. Depending on the size I think it's about $100 per sash to do that. For a permanent solution that might be best... basically exactly the same as ordering it with obscure or privacy glass to begin with...

We also have a regular window over our tub. I'm still debating what to do there. I may simply hang a sheer cafe curtain across the lower sash, since I do want to be able to see some trees and sky out the top of the window. In our old house we had a similar window treatment and it worked very well. I made the curtain of a light white cotton (viole, I think) that was opaque enough to block the neighbors' view but sheer enough to let in tons of light. In laying out the bath I hadn't thought much about this window, assuming we'd use the same woven roller-blind we had before... but now I realize it'll be too difficult to reach across the tub every night and morning to open and close that, and I need a different, no-maintenance solution!

We used the 3M film on a 60-year-old window behind our tub...it was very easy to install and looks like it's not going anywhere. You can get it in various levels of obscurity, the less obscure the more light they allow.

I tried the spray for frosted glass on a window in a shower at rental property. Didn't last. Comes off when the window is cleaned.

The film worked much better.

>Didn't last. Comes off when the window is cleaned.

Yes, there are sprays like that, but I was referring to the sprays that chemically etch the glass, FWIW. They are permanent--no chance to change your mind later without replacing the panes.

I have struggled with this same issue glad someone brought it up. I have a very large window in my shower. I too have a contemporary bath and altho this is not my only window on this side I love to look out. I don't want to kill my view for the one time a day I go in and run the shower. Plus my toilet is in a separate room opposite the window and yes I like to look out and watch the birds and stuff. I live on a lake so it's very cool to watch everything come and go. I too have been looking for something that was pleasing to the eye that could be closed when needed. I also don't want to block light just view. Until I find something better I am planing on putting in a tension rod, I don't want to put a hole in my new tile. I will make some sort of roman blind out of the fabric that they sell for showers that has the teflon coating so it will stay new looking for a long time. I will have it up 99 percent of the time and drop it down when needed. The other option I was thinking of is Ikea sells cable wire curtain rods that you can mount to the ceiling and then you just clip on the fabric you want to it. I have also considered strips of plexi glass frosted hanging that would sort of act as a vertical blind. I have not completely decided. I have even thought of a bunch of ball chain strung in a line but I think it would be noisy don't know how I would park it during the day.

If you want a curtain that is easy to open and close, you could try a "crane rod" or "curtain crane". It is a rod that is only mounted to the wall on one side and can be swiveled against the wall or opened 90 or 180 degrees. I will use one for the little window in my little toilet room off of the bathroom. Most of the time, no one can see, but it would be good to be able to close it occasionally. Don't know if that would work for a big window over a tub or not.

thanks for all the responses! love all the feedback and pictures!

i think i will go ahead and get window film (either HD or look into 3M). where (store) would i be able to find the 3M window film?