Why Do You Hardly Ever See Curtains in Spain? (And Why Your Neighbour Still Knows Everything)
Why Do You Hardly Ever See Curtains in Spain? (And Why Your Neighbour Still Knows Everything)
You've finally found your dream home in Spain.
The sun is shining.
Palm trees.
A charming little street.
You walk past dozens of houses.
And suddenly you notice something.
Where have all the curtains gone?
No heavy curtains.
No lace curtains.
No Venetian blinds.
No blackout curtains.
No giant curtain rails stretching across the living room.
You look inside out of curiosity.
And at that exact moment...
...someone looks back at you.
Welcome to Spain.
Where privacy works just a little differently.
🏡 The Dutch Love to Close Themselves Off
Take a walk through a typical Dutch neighbourhood in the evening.
You'll see:
🪟 thick curtains
🪟 sheer curtains
🪟 blinds
🪟 roller blinds
🪟 blackout curtains
🪟 and often another decorative layer "just to make it cosy."
Sometimes you almost forget there's a window behind them.
The Dutch love comfort.
But they also love privacy.
Ideally, nobody should know what you're having for dinner.
What Netflix series you're binge-watching.
Or that you've reached for the crisps for the third time today.
☀️ Spain Works Differently
In Spain, a home is designed around light.
And air.
Lots of air.
Because once temperatures climb towards 35°C...
...a closed house quickly turns into an oven.
Spanish homes are therefore built to stay cool.
Airflow.
Courtyards.
Shutters.
Roller shutters.
Shade.
Everything is designed with the climate in mind.
Not with the goal of collecting as much dust as possible on a pair of curtains.
😄 But Don't Spaniards Care About Privacy?
Of course they do.
They simply solve it differently.
Where a Dutch person closes the curtains...
...a Spaniard often lowers the roller shutter halfway.
Or closes the wooden shutters.
Or simply leaves the windows open and thinks:
"Well...
...the neighbours know me anyway."
And to be fair...
In many Spanish villages, your neighbour already knows your new garden furniture arrived yesterday...
...before you've even taken it out of the box.
We call her...
Carmen from Apartment 3B.
Carmen doesn't even need to look out of the window.
She just knows.
It's one of Spain's greatest mysteries.
