Curtains

Every few years I go through a thing about curtains. I want light but I want privacy. I live in a densely populated multifamily neighborhood where the houses are literally inches from each other. I have sewn simple cotton muslin curtains and when I take them down to wash them I always dream of other ideas and I move the curtains around. I love good old fashioned horizontal aluminum Venetian blinds but they strike me as being COLD in winter and don't soften a room acoustically.