Mini-blinds aren't really in style right now but they certainly have their good points. I used to have them and now have 2 inch faux wood blinds. I like how they look better but the mini-blinds were ligher and easier to raise. They also allowed more light and view when opened but not raised.

What about some kind of solid shade that you can raise easily during the day and lower at night for competely privacy?

I like shades that can open from the top down as well as bottom up. That way you can block off the bottom part of your window and people can't easily look in from the street, but you let in light and can see out over the top. Many types of shades come with this option now, including pleated, cellular and roman shades. I think that I have even seen top down bamboo shades out there.

I think mini-blinds are past their prime ;-) But depending on your decor, I'd go with woven roman shades, wide slat wood blinds or plantation shutters.

or...how about roman shades or those tie up shades in a very light organza or linen fabric?

Here is a link that might be useful: PB sheer shade

I agree with terriks about the top-down, bottom-up shades. We have some friends who also have a bay window facing the street and they used these shades. The effect is wonderful: clean-lined and pretty.

Here is a link that might be useful: S&N Honeycomb Shades

I was thinking about wooden 1" blinds for the bedrooms. I have build a cottage style cape.Last summer I was in Newport R.I. for a wedding and had some extra time and rode around just looking at beautiful cottage style homes on the ocean. Many of them had the wooden 1" blinds and I thought they looked quite nice. I am just afraid the 2" would not give the same look. Otherwise I like to keep most of my windows free of anything but maybe a valence across the top or some half wooden shutters.

Isn't it unfortunate that miniblinds are considered "out," since they're so practical and inexpensive, and many people like their features. They do their job, for sure, and they are still available. That's gotta be worth something!

I think SOME miniblinds like those plastic ones - UGH! - are utterly wretched, but others aren't so bad, like wood ones in particular are not dated at all. We had wood 1" blinds in our previous house's master bedroom and even though I'm not really a blinds person they did look nice. We have a bay window 6 feet from the sidewalk in our current house and I put up 2" wood blinds, which do look very good and will look even better once we get those dadratted drapes up with them to soften the total effect! Whether 1" or 2" work better depends on your room. Our current windows are quite large and 1" blinds would have looked super busy IMO, as well as being a bit scrawny for the depth of the window casing. The casings were quite shallow in our previous house, so 1" blinds fit those windows better. The 2" ones do let in a lot of light when open, because the spaces between the slats are wider, and it's nicely possible to tilt them at just the right angle that people can't see in from the street but light still comes in. Because it was a big hassle to get at the middle window of the bay (we would be climbing over a chair and table to reach the cords) we sprung for the motorized tilt option on that one so it would ever get opened/closed at all.

I am going to disagree with some other folks: extremely functional as they may be, I think the top-down blinds look a little odd from the outside - I think they're best on the sides or rear of a house, not "in your face" right in front. Maybe if you're in a very contemporary building, I don't know.

If the view in from the street is only through the lower half of the window (I'm guessing typical double-hungs) and the style suits your decor and architecture, shutters that only cover the lower sash are efficient and attractive. They completely block visibility from outside and still allow generous amounts of light in through the top half of the window, so there would be no hassle with opening and closing a window treatment.

I'm pretty anti-blind myself, so I feel your pain. If you like an unobstructed view during the day, you might consider a reflective window tint. Then you can see out, but people won't be able to see in. That doesn't work at night, so you'd have to do in conjunction with something like a cellular blind. They're much lower profile than wooden blinds when retracted - wooden blinds you pretty much have to leave open permanently, just tilting the slats to open or closed as needed (the reason being that they're pretty heavy and thus a chore to retract, plus even retracted they take up a lot of space).