Love your inspiration room, and I think it will look great.

However, I wouldn't make one long roman shade instead of three individual shades. I find that one long shade is more difficult to get up and down, and since you have lovely woodwork, why hide it? :)

Good luck!

Lovely inspiration pic. I would choose the RS option that gives you the best light and privacy control that you desire for the room--keeping in mind cord control safety for a child's room. The shelves will be very useful for storage. Be sure to make them adjustable. Regarding the depth, I'd check out BB&B or Target for some baskets/bins you may wish to use with the shelves down the road and make sure the depth is sufficient to accomodate that. For children's rooms, I defintely like to use baskets and bins to store toys and such as well as keep down the clutter.

I want to echo birdlover on the Roman shade -- we have a very wide blind on our windows and it's really hard to pull up. Three separate ones would be easier to handle, and your lovely woodwork will be seen. We had a window seat in a previous house and loved the look; even found time to sit in it sometimes.

Adjustable shelves sometimes tend to tip over. With a small child, this instability could be a problem, perhaps a serious problem.

While I love the idea of adjustable shelves, a child will use those shelves as a ladder, so I agree with iread06 the the shelves need to be immovable and supported well enough to handle a 45-pound kid climbing them.

Absolutely agree on three separate shades, they just look nicer and easier to go up and down, I have the 3 and they look very nice. Agree about shelves also, maybe the first couple being non-moveable and one or two upper ones being able to adjust when you want to or take out. I love the look of that whole wall with the seat, lucky baby!

Birdlover,Susanaka, & Suasan209: Thanks for your ideas on the 3 shades. That has been one of the concerns I have, 3 versus 1 shade. One thing is we do not have nice woodwork as someone mentioned. I have included another close-up of part of the window to show that it is actually vinyl and is is quite flat all across and the space between the windows does not protrude out where a shade could hang nicely inside. That was why the lady making them suggested one because light would be coming in between each one if I went with three.
valinsv: Thanks for the tip about baskets. A good thing for me to check on.
iread06 and forhgtv: Good points about the shelves. Maybe I should only do the top ones movable and anchor the bottom ones. Maybe I could talk my husband into putting doors on the bottom two shelves.

Other people always see something that I have somehow missed so please keep the ideas coming.

{{!gwi}}

Fifteen inch-deep shelves should be plenty big enough for children's books & a few toys, but in your inspiration picture, the seat & the shelves are the same width, and while fifteen inches is a deep enough seat for a pre-schooler, when your grandkids grow up, that seat will be way too shallow for them to get comfortable, which is the whole point of a window seat. So that depth should be extended. Also, make sure the wooden seat height is far enough below the bottom of the winndow to allow adequate clearance room for a truly comfortable cushion, not one of those thin foam pads.

Also, with tha extra depth of seat, you'll probably want to make the shelves's framework deeper to match, so that there's room for a matching cushion or two to lean up against the outside of the shelves. And since that means you'll have extra shelf depth to work with, you might think about bringing the wiring up into the framing of the shelves, so that you can add a pair of sconce up above head height for someone --that is, you--sitting there to read to a young one. You need to be comfortable, too, because regardless of what they say, it's NOT all about the children.

Which brings us to the whole matter of blinds-vs-curtains. On normal windows, blinds are fine, but for coziness & the kind of secure, protected nook that kids crave--think back to your own card-table-&-blankets tents, here--nothing beats an enclosed window seat with curtains (not blinds) on the room side (not the window side) of the seat, drawn tight against the larger room, as anyone who's ever read the memorable first chapter of Jane Eyre will attest.

Aren't you glad you threw this question out there? It just keeps getting bigger & bigger.

I think your idea is charming.

I do wonder how large the room is, and how much floor space you will lose to get in the seat at a truly usable depth of 20-24 inches. Once you build that out, will there be room for a dresser/changing table, rocker and a twin bed? Also a desk for the child to do projects and homework?

I think you need to consider the twin and how the room will evolve, because the child is in the crib for a relatively short amount of time compared to the total years they might be in the bedroom.

I agree that three separate shades would be nicer, allowing more light adjustment options.

Along the lines of what Magnverde mentioned, you might consider another option. Instead of having the bookshelves facing out, build out the window seat with the shelves on the insides of the windowseat, facing each other, so that a person sitting there would have access to the books from a seated position. You could hang a nice lamp on either end on the bookcase shelves.

The front face of those sides would be plain, trimmed out and painted to be a part of the walls. But, you would run a decorative cornice out in front of the soffit, perhaps in fabric or to match the trim in the room, and behind that hang curtains that could be pulled closed to create a cozy nook. The drapery would pull back on either side, in front of the plain side walls that you created,when not in use.

Also consider changing out the window handles to these:
t-crank

If this is a babys room, wouldn't the child, when it turns about one year old, pull down the curtains or shades if there is a window seat for access? Rather, you could put up a upper and lower bank of shutters and maybe some honey comb shades behind. I don't think you have enough room for a window seat. It would be more like a wide shelf and maybe that could be natural wood finish. You could paint the shutters pink. Or maybe not.

Magnaverde: Thanks for chiming in here. Your mention of the height of seat to allow for a good thick cushion is a good one. I will be over at my daughters today and plan on measuring from the floor up to see what we have to work with there.Your other ideas are worth considering. Thanks for your suggestions.
Les: I really do not think we will be not able to go out more than 15 inches because of the size of the room. I understand that this would really only serve for about 10 years as a window seat and then after maybe just for a shelf when the child is over 10. But with our small room it will take care of the problem of not having to bring in a bookshelf in order to display a few nice items along with books. Love the t-Crank idea. I did not know things like that existed.
Someone2010: What you mentioned has been on my mind. I really do not know, when I mention this to my daughter she says "Don't you just tell a child no they are not allowed to do that" Ha, you can see that she has not had any children yet.. LOL

I heard on TV that LOL was actually short for LOLCOI; laughing out loud, crying on the inside.

You know, I hesitate to admit this, but we never "baby-proofed" our house. Only had one little girl to contend with, but she never climbed, pulled, broke or got into anything. I let her use the little porcelain cups she received as a baby and we still have those cups. Every kid is different, but I'd like to suggest that having a child does not necessarily bring about an edict against nice things like curtains. Decorating for kids is kind of like raising kids....expect the best, hope for the best and stay flexible, just in case. I'd hang those outer curtains in a heartbeat, keep and eye out and maybe take them down for a rambunctious year if I needed to. YMMV