What color is the actual window frame? If white, I would order white shades. Most brands have several shades of white or off white to choose from. I would be afraid to match the wall color because most of my shades have always outlasted the paint color in a room and white goes with everything.

I am usually in the kitchen, bath or laundry forums and landed here today on a search, so hello. Like nini804, I live in the south where plantation shutters can sell a house. They do indeed cut heating costs if you leave them shut, and AC costs it you shut or at least tilt them against the sun. I also have cellular shades in some of the guest rooms, roman shades in my son's room, and blinds in my family room and office. Plus four cats! Cleaning cell shades was never a problem -- roll them with a lint roller, same for lamp shades -- but cords for both blinds and shades need to be secured if you have a mischievous cat. Kittens have strangled on them. I think of all the options you have presented, wood blinds let in the most light and give quick, easy flexibility for adjustment. Easily cleaned with a swiffer extender. They almost disappear when pulled up. The frames around shutters cut out a lot of light, and they look less good on small windows. You particularly do not want to "split" a plantation shutter on a small window. I think cellular shades give a soft, pretty look and come in more colors, but are best in bedrooms. However, you used to be able to get them with a sun reflective coating for hot areas, though they did give a shimmery look to your windows when viewed from the outside. Not sure if those are still on the market. You can also, I believe, put Pellas on a timer that will automatically raise and lower them at different times of the day, depending on how you preset it. Where we live, in a moderately upscale neighborhood in the south, it is considered good form to have matching window treatments on each on each side of your house. For example, most people here have plantation shutters on all their front windows, up and down. But they might have blinds or cellular shades on the back. My real estate agent says consistency gives a house curb appeal. But we have a mix on the front because that works best for our rooms, especially where the cats hang (dining room bay window) where shutters would restrict their view too much. All said, though, unless the window is a small one, plantation shutters are my favorite option. Hope my pros and cons can help you choose.

I just installed a Levolor transformations shade. It has blue light filering fabric on the top and cream room-darkening fabric on the bottom. It has a blue header and blue pull bars. It is just as I ordered it. But I'm having a problem falling in love with it. (Maybe it's because I don't like window coverings.) You can adjust how much of each fabric you want to show. Kind of like an adjustable colorblocking effect. I thought the blue could be a pretty extension of my white wood valance. The cream would make a nice backdrop for the TV which is partially in front of the window. It's effective at removing the glare from the TV which is one of the reasons I bought it. I guess I was a little disappointed in the room darkening fabric. It is more yellow than the corresponding light filtering color which was beautiful. But I don't know if I would have picked a different color had I known. Or maybe it's the graduated pattern of the pleats that bugs me a little. They are more scrunched up near the bottom of each bar. Or maybe I should have picked two colors that were more similar. I don't think they let you pick the same color for both sections since they often don't match that well. I liked it better after I hung some of my pictures on the wall, because they repeated the colors and balanced out the color distribution. The thing I love about these shades is the small profile. When they are completely retracted under my white wood valance, there is only 3" blue-bordered cream stripe under the valance. Very clean and doesn't block the view. If I extend the top a bit, I get a pretty blue stripe across the top of the window. I needed color up there since I removed the fabric valance I had before I trimmed out the window. I also like being able to lighten up the room by exposing more light filtering shade. (I did not do top-down-bottom-up because the window would have let it too much light creating a glare.) So I think after I frame it a bit with more decor, I won't mind it so much. Functionally it is perfect. But it seems a little "off" aesthetically. Is it the color combination, or the fabric differences (room-darkening vs light-filtering), or the variations in pleats, or the color-blocking concept, or the cream room-darkening color, or should I just have gone with light-filtering in one color? I just lowered it to the light-filtering blue all the way, and I think I like that better, but there is a smell amount of glare on the TV. Do you have these 2-in-1 types of cellular shades? Do you like them? What colors did you pick?

I think white is more classic and matching gray shade to gray walls is tricky. It is not uncommon for white or cream to be used for trim in rooms that have color and it would not be unexpected to have white or cream shades in a room whereas gray would be a noticeable visual element