I would wait until your kitchen is completed before making a decision on window treatments. That would probably be the last thing to do along with finding decorative accessories.
Some kithens look great without anything on the window and some desperately need a touch of fabric to balance all of the wood.
I personally love the look of window treatments in kitchens. One of my favorite kitchen designers is Jean Stoffer. You can easily find her website on google. She uses a lot of casual roman shades which are really in right now. Good Luck.

The OP is asking about wooden valances that have to be ordered with the cabinets.

They were long out of style among the naked glass crowd, but I think they're coming back. It depends how contemporary vs traditional or vintage you want your kitchen to look. I kind of like them.

However, they do affect your lighting choices, so consider that.

We have a smallish bay window with a deep ledge. I did a variation of a window valance - it actually is a short, open shelving unit (kind of like a bookcase) and I put decorative bowls, teapots, etc up there. I LOVE it - it adds a small detail. It prouds out from the cabinet run, BUT the crown is to the ceiling. I am not sure that it would look as good if the ceiling above was vaulted. Can you post a picture? HA - coming from someone who just tried to describe our solution without a picture!

Beth

I admit to not liking them for a few years , but my parents added one to their double window when redoing their kitchen this year and it looks both sweet and more finished with it than it did when it was not there. I think I now might use one if/when I redo my kitchen. I do have a vintage home so it is a fitting look for my home's era.

I don't think it will work with the vault, but if anyone has pictures, I might change my mind, after actually seeing one. So, no help at all, right? :)

I like them (and have one and am planning another one) but agree that with a vault it might be odd. Where's Boxer with the pics?

We ordered a wooden valence with the cabs and then didn't put it up.

Oops. Sorry! I thought you were referring to a valance like a window treatment.
I personally think wooden valances are dated, but I will admit I have seen some kitchens that they look really nice in. Good Luck!

Thanks GW. I think I'll skip the wood valance. I can always add a fabric valance later.

We recently saw a posting with a gorgeous arch over a set of windows at the sink--built out of wallboard by the owner with cupboards acting as pillars at the two sides. Anyone remember which thread that was? The clever unit really made the room special. Wish I'd seen that idea sooner!

I think I'm going to build valence boxes to pad with fabric over my windows. Romans will be below.

probably off topic...
If you choose roman shades or blinds for a multi-window unit and they're really functional, just wanted to say that you are in for a lifetime of short-term irritation when you have to raise/lower each little panel separately. There's no way around this but it's a fact of life each morning and evening. Gotta budget the time.

If there is any way to gang the windows and put a single shade over more than one window at a time, it's not as pretty but it's more efficient. I have a double window in center of my 5-window config and at least I could gang that window so I only have 4 blinds to pull.

Oh, I forgot to add that one reason I'm going with fabric-wrapped valences is to add a sound absorbing feature to the room high on the wall. Our kitchen and adjacent hall makes such echoing sound when a crowd is here that I can't bear to be in it at the height of the party. We thought about wood for valence but that would only add more echo surfaces, esp. when the fabric blinds retreat up into them.

I think a wood valence running horizontally is classy in a mod wood kitchen, esp if grain runs that way on cabs also. Not in love with curvy 1960s faux colonial ones or cute 1940s scalloped ones. (Been there, done that, moving on.)

sorry, correction... cornice, not valence