Light filtering shades have a few degrees to pick from; the smaller the holes, the more light is filtered. I had chocolate brown ones in a former house that had a southern exposition in the master, and 3 sets of french doors, lots of heat and light were coming in, I loved that I was able to walk in the room and still see the view, yet not have so much heat generated. We got used to sleeping with light in the morning.

Becky - don't know if you remember my room and link from up-thread but I've continued to follow your situation and thought I'd give you an update on mine since we have similar large, private settings and goals for views. Much as I love roman shades whether fabric or some kind of woven wood/bamboo, I just didn't want to cover up that much glass with the stack height. We did a test run with a textured roller shade on 2 windows in our living room. That way if we hated them it wasn't an investment in every window and we'd keep looking. Here's what we have, a roller shade behind a cassette. You can see the texture, it's not room darkening but offers excellent light/glare control and privacy. When they're open, they are very unobtrusive and leave the glass bare. The cassettes aren't invisible but if you match your wood they will disappear as much as anything can. Mine are in between my wall and my wood color so they have a bit of warmth to them. We are probably going to use these throughout the house where we need light control. Some of those windows may get additional decoration with curtains, and that's an opportunity to add some pattern and color. Personally, I don't think these have a modern look or really any definitive style look because I chose a neutral to basically disappear. If you chose a wood tone or a color of course they will be a focal point and that to me is where the clean lined modern look comes in. But as a first layer with curtains or even on their own matched to your wood, IMO they can work with any home or decorating style. Hope that helps. It's a tough decision and a lot of money, that's for sure!

Blackout curtains are great, but you need to look at all the edges, as that is where light will leak out. In my experience that means: A pelmet on the top. Either one curtain or make sure they overlap where they meet in the middle. The curtains need to extend well beyond he window at each side. The rail that Sharon has posted looks a good idea too. Floor length sounds like a good idea, as long as you are not covering a radiator. Most radiators are situated directly below the window, so you end up blocking the heat. We have curtains that fall just below the window and tuck them between the radiator and wall. Aesthetically not ideal, but if you're asleep, who cares? Better than waking up to a cold room. A more expensive option is metal roller blinds fitted into the window frame.

Hey there: our light filtering honeycomb shades give you full privacy. Nobody can see through the fabric even with the lights on at night. We offer about 170 fabrics for honeycomb shades. All open bottom-up and top-down with no header or strings across the glass.