I picked up the Etched Leaf pattern of the Artscapes film at Home Depot to provide privacy, but light, for a basement door with a big window in it. It's really lovely and was easy to do. Unlike the old contact paper, this is a cling film so it's easy to remove, reposition, etc. I'm not sure I got every last bubble out of it, but the pattern hides that well. I don't know if it will yellow or get brittle in the long term, but it's not too expensive so I'd be willing to replace it if I needed to.

oakleyok--I think black-out shades would work well for you. If you've got the funds...someone does nice ones that are top down or bottom up...you could still let a wee bit of the daylight in from the top so you don't have to turn on room lamps... I hear you about the foil. I had a friend who had heavy duty black plastic contractor's bags taped over her windows while her husband was "trying to decide" about the best window coverings for their home. For TWO YEARS. He went out of town and she and I made a Slowes run and put up honeycomb blackout shades. (Can't remember the brand.) We told him it was a shade intervention when he got home and that I would be happy to buy them from them when they finally chose their "official" window coverings. 10 years later they are still up. ;^)

Mine is on the diagonal and I can say it does not look busy. The veining is irregular, too, though it mostly flows in one direction. My kitchen has a lot going on and that was one more thing! I fretted over that, but it's fine. I'm sure you've got great fabricators...but I didn't get the warm and fuzzies from mine so I insisted on seeing the templates laid on the stone as they planned to cut them BEFORE they actually cut them. It took 4 visits for them to get it right. I am very glad I made them take that extra step. I was adamant about the fact that I wanted all the flow to go in the same direction across the kitchen. Initially, they had everything laid on the marble every which way. If they had cut it like that, I would have had seams come together like a V and that's not how the stone flows. So it meant jockeying some pieces around. It seemed like an obvious request to me, but they thought I was crazy! You can stand in one corner and look across all perimeters and the islands and see that the veins of the stone all go the same way...not zigzag at seams. You may want the zigzags, however, so be sure you plan it out that way. Plan out your pieces on graph paper and shade in your "pattern." Cut and place your pieces like you want them. That's the only way it will flow the way YOU want. (In fact, I would scale counter cutouts to an 8 x 10 print of the slab and template the print!) I apologize if I'm overstepping my bounds and telling you something you already know! :) You have a gorgeous slab! I really hope you can capture that chunk of veining in the upper lefthand corner (island?)...and I hope you get a counter out of that mid-right to lower middle-running vein. Mmmm. Mmmm. Scrumptious!!

Same issue here. The film was on for maybe 18 months. It came off With some effort, although definitely tougher on windows that had more direct sun. But the residue was a bear. We tried many of the things suggested here and a lot of elbow grease but came up with a hands-down winner-- Turtle Wax spray-on Bug and Tar remover. We sprayed it on a window or two at a time and let it sit for a couple of minutes. Used a rag to rub it in a circular motion and then another one to wipe it off. It saved us DAYS of work. It's definitely an oil based product but does not leave streaks as long as you use a relatively fresh rag for the wipe off. We were surprised but I guess since it's designed for use on cars, Turtle Wax figured that one out.