I purchased these for a room in our basement. For the money, I was pretty happy with them. I wanted cordless, and in a medium color, and these fit the bill. Very easy to install, too. They aren't matchstick like you want, but they are very reasonable. Lots of sizes, too. Here is a link that might be useful: Penneys inexpensive blinds

Many moons ago in an apartment I was renting, I hung lace curtains with roller shades behind them. I let the lace cover the windows completely - there was a wall full of narrow windows and I hung one panel on each window - there was some shirring across the top, but not much (which was good, since it didn't obscure the lace). I used the roller shades behind and only pulled them down at night - the rest of the time, they were rolled to the top and very unobtrusive. So in your case, I'd do the same thing - leave the lace all the way across the window (no need for a valance then) and put roller shades beneath. I'd vote roller shades over the blinds becuase: a) they look like they fit the style of the kitchen better b) they can roll up farther than faux wood blinds - usually teh blinds take a good bit of stacking room c) the horizontal lines of the blinds (if you leave them down but open for sun) will compete with and obscure the lace pattern. JMHO! Good luck!

I've bought a bunch of Bali cordless shades from Costco. I like the insulation, privacy, and I like the sun up/sun down for my bedroom and my living room. The living room used to have faux wood blinds...I'm not 100% sure I prefer the look of the cellular shades, but I do think they're more functional. I'm not at all handy and thought installation was pretty easy. I do have some doubts on the measurements for the bedroom windows. There are small gaps on the side of the shades that let in light, which aren't completely avoidable. BUT I wonder if I could have a smaller gap by mounting the shades in a different part of the window casing or using a smaller size shade, so maybe professional advice would have been helpful. I did talk to a designer about buying Norman or Hunter Douglas shades--she never followed through on a written quote, but the price was multiple times what I paid Costco. So I could throw away and redo the bedroom window shades and still come out ahead.

I would only be doing the window to the left where the plants are. When the sun goes down in the afternoon, it scorches the plants and is starting to ruin my table as well. Not to mention, gets extremely hot. I don't really get any direct sunlight through the other windows. I thought about a neutral color but I think I'll have a lot of trouble matching the color to the outside of the house. From the couch area, there's a pretty nice view out that window and you can't really see any of it with the white. I think the black will match, especially with the trim. But I'm worried it absorbs heat and will make it even hotter in here.