I'm planning a wall to wall vanity in my tiny powder room . I only have less than 38 inches to work with, so I'm going with a built in look. I do agree if I had 65 inches, I'd consider a gap on either side because I like the furniture look, but that limits you to 57 inches, so you have room to pick up that pesty eyeliner pencil that decides to roll off the edge. You have to decide if the extra counter space is more important. Form vs Function Always ;-) Hunzi

We moved to Florida from NY. The house we bought was so dark inside because of large overhangs from the roof which blocks sunlight and a large lanai running across the back wall which has a roof, no sunlight. We liked the house, but I couldn't stand how dark it was inside. Before we moved in, I call a Tubular Skylight company to get an estimate on installing them in the house. Recommendation was a large one in the kitchen ceiling ($500.00), small one in a bathroom off the hallway($250.00), a medium size in the family room off the kitchen ($325.). I can't tell you how bright this area is now. What I liked is they just go through your attic, make the openings and can position the tube (in the attic) toward south so we get bright light from sunrise to sunset. Over the past 6 yrs when we could afford more, we added to the laundry room (no windows), another bathroom (small skylight), the dining room. My house is so bright when you walk in you think there are spotlights all over the place. It took me a while, initially when the first ones were put in to get used to the high level of light. Looked like a new house! Before putting them in, we had to have our overhead lights lit all day. That costs a lot of money. I feel these tube skylights have paid for themselves in 5 yrs. Plus the house looks like a bright, inviting home. Everyone who walks in comments on how bright our home is. I would look into installing at least one large one in the kitchen, maybe a medium in the hall. So much less expensive than 'real skylights' and keeping the lights lit all day. Jane

IMO Wall to window would look more balanced

If you want to use something relatively inexpensive that can be butted or spliced together and is hand draw, you could use cubicle track or shower track from this company. http://www.ceilingshowerrod.com/new/ I actually used this for all my shower curtains. My one-piece ceiling mounted length to fit traverse rods with pulley to open and close were expensive and shipping was expensive.