Calling Pipdog! hopefully she will see this and have a few suggestions for you.

A typical mcm treatment that would work for you would be a plain cornice board across the top with a curtain rod behind. Then put up pinch pleat drapes on a traverse rod. The board hides the pleats for a cleaner look. In your case, you could make it out of the walnut that you have in the rest of the house. Then it would give you a similar look to the recessed rod.

Something like this only mounted up at the ceiling.

[Traditional Dining Room[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/traditional-dining-room-ideas-phbr1-bp~t_722~s_2107) by Decatur Interior Designers & Decorators Gina Sims Designs

So it would look more like this, only without the paint and the extra trim molding.

[Traditional Living Room[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/traditional-living-room-ideas-phbr1-bp~t_718~s_2107) by New York Interior Designers & Decorators Lauren Ostrow Interior Design, Inc

This one is cool as it has the recessed lighting built in, which was also popular back then.

[Contemporary Living Room[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/contemporary-living-room-ideas-phbr1-bp~t_718~s_2103) by Other Metro Photographers Elad Gonen

Another alternative would be to use just dummy panels on the ends and the corner and hide black out shades or blinds underneath the cornice board. When we acquired our MCM ranch house, all the bedroom windows had wooden slatted venetian blinds.

From the view, it looks like you are somewhere out in the Southwest! Very nice red bushes in the front.

You say you are considering blackout curtains. Have you considered using window tint or smart glass?

"Smart glass or switchable glass" also called smart windows or switchable windows in its application to windows or skylights" refers to glass or glazing that changes light transmission properties under the application of voltage, light or heat.

Smart glass controls the amount of light (and thereby heat) transmission. When activated, the glass changes from transparent to translucent, blocking some or all wavelengths of light.

Smart glass technologies include electrochromic, photochromic, thermochromic, suspended particle, micro-blind and liquid crystal devices."

We like light coming in but also value our privacy so we have cafe curtains in two of the rooms of our house. They cover the bottom half but allow light in from two feet down. Perhaps plantation shutters might be another consideration.

Ceiling mounted track with ripple fold or sinuous fold, floor-to-ceiling drapery on a traverse mechanism. I would do two layers since you want blackout. A light sheer with a heavier drape over top, or the sheer with blackout mounted underneath like they used to do in hotels.

Agree with palimpsest. Minimal hardware and simple drapes that fall as cleanly as possible would be ideal. Take a look at Bruno Mathsson's interiors.

I think if you just doubled up the curtains you have now it would look great. (Meaning you need to add more panels.) I have those exact Ikea curtains in my house. They are a great value.

On the more modern, less MCM side of things - solar shades with a chain mechanism?

[Modern Bedroom[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/modern-bedroom-ideas-phbr1-bp~t_715~s_2105) by Winter Park Architects & Designers Phil Kean Design Group

[Contemporary Living Room[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/contemporary-living-room-ideas-phbr1-bp~t_718~s_2103) by Wausau Window Treatments Accent Window Fashions LLC

We have very large TDBU blackout honeycombs and...I don't love them. I really don't like having the shade strings hanging out everywhere. If I could have gotten them with a metal loop chain I would like them 1000% more. On the plus side they're extremely low profile and block out a lot of light, plus they're great insulators.

I also use the top down feature a little less than I thought I would, so in retrospect just getting bottom up would have been fine for me.

Argh..I see my response did not get posted.

Thank you all for the replies! I really really like the shades you posted robotropolis! Those are what I would like to do, but I would want the mechanism hidden in the drywall, which I was told I cant do. Maybe I will do some research and see if there are any minimalist hardware brands.

I guess my other option is to replace the curtains with blackout curtains and follow Matheson's design like in the pic above (I LOVE his stuff!) that atheniva posted. I really dont want a valence to hide the hardware as it would look too bulky and might be overly heavy looking at the corner. I dont mind seeing the curtain hardware as it is flush with the aluminum trim of the windows, so not obstructive.

Dreamgarden, I will look into possible glazing, but it would have to not be visible from the outside, or I would have to do the same to the living room glass (they are mirror opposites from the outside). I dont want to replace the glass though as it is new. Thanks!

I think a solar shade cassette valence is pretty low profile - possibly wouldn't protrude down past the trim.

I'd get the vertical cellular blinds that open and close like sliding doors.

Thanks robotropolis! I think you are right that this is the best soln. I am going to shop hard online to find the minimalist set up there is. If I find something, I'll post it here.

Simple Fit window shades are honeycomb and let you personalize the shade to your needs (you can select color, style, fabric, etc). They have top/down, day/night shades as well as special sun-blocking shades check them out here: http://www.simplefitcustomshades.com. They are also easy to install.

Here is a link that might be useful: Simple Fit

This is going to sound a little odd but it works well for me. I had my husband go outside and walk by on the road with me inside at the bedroom window I had him wave when he could only see me from the chin up. Then I had him drive by at night and do the same thing. I marked the window then had it heavily frosted so even when lit from withen when its dark outside you cann,t see inside. I have a curtain that only gets pulled shut when we go to bed. My bedroom widow is a bay widow that sits above the road and its frosted about half way up. Light comes threw the frosted areas and I get a full view of the trees outside from the unfrosted part.