worldmom,

if you really don't want to cover up your new windows but are concerned about the UV light coming through, you could do a tint on the windows. after reading your post, it seems as if you REALLY don't want any window treatments. Just a thought...

we back to the woods... no window treatments. I LOVE the look. :-) so I'd look into window tinting before I'd put up blinds/curtains.

it's one of those things, if you love a bare window, you LOVE a bare window!

Go Naked!!!!

Seriously if you love your windows and the view be free.
I have simple roman shades always up. They used to be naked
until my Aunt told me, I needed something for goodness sake.
So I chose the simple roman. But I might go back to being
free with just the white trim.
Here are some other naked windows....and White kitchens of course.
~boxer

Kirby Kitchen

Naked windows by Cook and Cook

Okay, Okay, You asked for window treatments and here I was
only sharing windows without. Here are few lovely ones that
are pretty with their valances.

Abruzzo

North Shore Kitchens

Restyled home

Kitchen olive aux

Decorpad

Personally I love roman shades! I keep mine up most of the time but it is nice to have a peep of color in the kitchen - I love white kitchens as well but I find that the first thing everyone comments on in my kitchen is the roman shade. :)

Thanks for the ideas so far, guys. I wanted to emphasize (since I'm so wordy and it probably got lost in all the stuff I wrote) that although I *love* bare windows, it's really not an option with our daughter's vision issues.

I personally don't think bare blinds look finished without a valance, curtains, or whatever. I do think Roman shades and wovens can stand on their own, although of course those can be paired with valances, too.

But I'm looking closely at your beautiful windows, and I don't really see how a curtain or valance would work in your situation. Between counter height windows on the bottom, plus the existing built-in valance/arch on top, it just seems like a valance would get in the way. Roman shades might be your best bet, unless it's possible to do inside-mount fabric valances above a set of blinds.

Hi worldmom! My kitchen windows went naked for about a year, but I longed for a little more finished look. I made a set of relaxed romans which I keep up 99% of the time:

would a patterned sheer curtain or eyelet curtains help your daughter at all? or do you need something more light restricting?

I need privacy for the lower half of my windows (my house sits up higher than the alley in the back so I don't need the tops of my windows covered.

I plan on doing just the lower part of cafe curtains with hooks on the sides so that I can pull the curtains back real easy and just drape them behind the hooks during the day but at night when I have the light on in there or need more privacy I can just pull them out from behind the hook and let them fall into place.

I won't have pictures of what I'm talking about for another month or so at least, but I will post pictures when I get there. And I haven't really found any good pictures to show what I'm talking about, sorry!

Also, my window over my sink isn't counter height so I'm not sure if my idea will help at all. it sounds like you need something to block the light and that will cover just about the whole window but not touch the counter. That makes me think roman shade.

I don't know what level of light blocking you need... but I just remembered something I did years ago at the old house (unfortunately had a computer crash and lost pics of this)...

The original kitchen (before we changed it) was horrible. it had 2 sets of sliding glass doors on the long outside wall... and SHORT wall of everything else. seriously, everything else was on the short wall of the kitchen. with a big huge expanse of floor space.

I digress. the sliding glass doors were huge. and a great big fishbowl looking into my neighbors back yard/ house. I could see that we were watching the same tv programs. I hated vertical blinds. Couldn't see myself putting curtains in a kitchen... so I taped out a "french door" grid pattern on the windows -- and sprayed it with window frosting. It looked terrific and gave us privacy.

Actually now that I think about it, I've done the same thing to our master bathroom window. It overlooks the cul-de-sac. This time I've sprayed it solid... and then I've paired it up with cute window shutters. I'm trying to remember your layout pic now... but it actually might be an idea...

heading upstairs to take a pic.

What about something like these?

There are also available as roman blinds.

Here is a link that might be useful: Screen Shades

here it is...
depending on the style of your kitchen... a bottom shutter with a valence??

the pics are how we normally keep it - closed shutters but with the slats open. sometimes dh closes the slats for that truly private feeling - but I've gone outside at night with the bathroom light on... shutters open... and you can't see through the spray at all. the shutters are there more for us.

{{!gwi}}

{{!gwi}}

{{!gwi}}

now that I look at this, you can see the spray lines in the pic - not so easily seen in real life. also, the last time I did this, it was VERY EVEN... this time, I was in a hurry and since we essentially are still covering it up, I said "good enough" and went on without looking for perfection.

hth

I love a bare window and with all wood windows I love to see the beauty of them. We have practically no windows or shades in the entire house.

We are on once acre in a very small neighbourhood high up on a knoll with 40 acres of woods behind us....so in reality no one can see in the house....

We have matching windows on each side of the house...these pictured in the kitchen and the same windows are in the adjacent living room.

I'm toying with the idea of side panels in the newly finished dining area, just to tie the colors into the avacodo green accents in the kitchen......the photos shows the old blinds that are being taken down

{{!gwi}}

Have you considered honeycomb shades? There are all different levels of light blocking for your daughter, but when all the way up, they are inside mounted and barely visible, especially if you choose a color that matches your trim.

You could also do pleated shades with the top down bottom up feature. The roman shades work nicely as mentioned already.

Thanks everyone! Lots of good ideas for me to ponder. :o)

worldmom, we also are struggling with the same issues---daughter with light sensitivity due to a vision disability and, in our case, a west facing kitchen window. So far we think our choices may be a patterned sheer curtain (so it can be easily taken down and washed) or a solar shade that can be wiped clean as needed. In the past I've had 2" blinds over the kitchen window and also matchstick blinds. The 2" blinds, although great for light control were hard to clean and did show every splash. The matchstick blinds always looked great but weren't so great for light control as they still left blinding light in through the thin spaces. Good luck with your decision and I'd love to see what you decide. At the moment we're thinking of just getting a plain old cheap roller shade to pull down when the sun is a it's worst and hope that someone will invent a better solution.

flseadog - we currently have 2" white wood blinds and I know what you mean about them being hard to clean! I also hate that even when pulled up, the header and stacked slats cut about 8" out of the view. The screen shades that research queen linked above look like they would do the trick and have a small profile, but they are pretty utilitarian. They may be an option, but I'll keep looking and post what I can come up with.

If you don't mind sharing, I'd love to know more about your daughter's vision issues. :o) As with most people with albinism, our daughter is legally blind, has nystagmus, and is pretty photophobic. She wears glasses with a *tiny* amount of correction, but the main benefit of them is the Transitions lenses.

Worldmom, just a thought, but would you consider doing the screen shades with your beautiful waverly fabric as a valence. Clean lines, but makes it a little less blah. Adds a touch of something but also solves the light problem.

I know that there are other manufacturers of the same type of shades who may be more cost efficient than Hunter Douglas.

hi worldsmom - we have a white kitchen and did one large bamboo shade across our three over the sink windows - this is not a great photo, but gives you an idea. I love bare windows so was very hesitant to do this but I do like the texture and since it is not 100% light blockage some soft light still filters in, which I like. HTH!

{{!gwi}}

Have you thought about a lovely plantation shutter with wide slats? They really add an architectural presence to the room, and I didn't find the ones with 3" wide slats to be difficult at all to clean. You can adjust them so easily to let in as little or as much light as you'd like. Plus...they really helped with energy bills, they deflect the sun out when tilted up, and keep it warmer when closed in the winter at night.