Thanks for all the suggestions. The width of the area I'm working with makes things very challenging, doesn't it? val -- the advantage to your idea of roller shades is not having to worry about any cords hanging down. I did look at something called a solar shade at one time, but I think I may want a softer look. les -- one of my first thoughts was to use some type of pleated or honeycomb shade (because they are available without cords) along with a valance to hide them, just as you suggested, but somewhere along my thought process, I thought it would be nice to have some kind of single-panel panels to soften that side of the room. I probably should let that idea go because it may not be the best solution for the area, especially considering the limited amount of clearance I have to the right. We have Silhouettes in the LR, which I love, so if I have the Luminettes in the FR, that may flow nicely thru the house. One of my concerns about the Luminettes, tho, is when they're open, I wonder how much space I would have to allow for them to stack. deborah -- maybe you can answer my question about how tightly the Luminettes stack when open. sally -- do you also have the Luminettes? parma -- thanks for the pictures. We don't get The Sun Times, we get The Tribune. I looked at the paper's website, but couldn't find the article. I'll try the Divine Design website. The thing is I don't really want a lot at the windows and after having nothing there for such a long time, anything will seem like a lot to me, I think. I still want to have them very open during the day, especially on a day like today with all the snow we're getting. We have some very large pine trees in our yard that look so pretty in the snow. I hope to head out to a local drapery store on Monday to at least get some suggestions there.

Break this down into two steps to make it easier. Tackle function first. Don't worry about a valance until after you live with the shade for a while. Get dressed and go to the stores and play with their displays. Find one that give you privacy, but also works with your fan. The valance is just fluff and you might decide that with your clean lines that you don't want one. The pleated shades that Daisy mentioned sounds just like what you need. Even a nice tailored pulldown sounds great with your Shaker-style furniture.

Definitely some sort of shade on the windows. But not inside mount. The windows are set fairly low on the wall, so to lengthen the wall, I'd mount the shades much higher up, and maybe use one shade for every two windows. And paint the white trim the same color as the walls--right now the contrast is not a good look. Here are some examples of what you could do:

Room darkening shades inside mount. Bali Cut-to-Size Cut-to-Size Vanilla Swirl Cordless Room Darkening Fade resistant Roller Shades 20.25 in. W x 72 in. L-37-8100-21x22.25x72 Dec - The Home Depot