Jakuval: I like that plinth idea. How can I use that idea at the end of a run? On one side of my kitchen the side of the cabinets face the family room. Since the crown is so big, my return of the crown means I would have to pull that cabinet in from the end of the wall about 5" + in order to return the crown. The cabinet there is already not that wide and to take another 5" off of the width of it shorts me too much cabinet space. Here is a sketch. How can I finish the crown here and still bring my cabinet almost to the edge of the wall?

Rebeccamom, there are so many people with the same dilemma, we should start a "show me your kitchen window" thread. I also have a finished kitchen with a naked window. While these are my backyard neighbors, I also live in New England and the window feels stark when the leaves come down. I just purchased Levolor cellular white blinds which they custom cut at the store and are really reasonable. It is still in the box and awaiting DH's next day off. I thought it would still give me the naked look, but could pull it down on those cold evenings that have already started. I saw some custom roman shades online at jcpenny, but I need to call to find out if I can get fabric samples.

You could also hang the curtains on rings that attach with metal clasps. That makes them easy to remove to clean. Most draperies and curtain rods have "returns" on the sides. You could run your blackout curtains on rods underneath the outer ones. Putting them all on rings allows for them to be pulled to the side and opened. A curtain that has a rod pocket and is threaded onto a rod is not able to slide open. You might be able to slide them back with some effort, but that is awkward. I recently put my grand daughter's curtain on rings so that it could be opened. Her mother and other grandmother are more attuned to closing themselves and her up into the house. They never cared nor questioned that the curtains were permanently closed. That was back in September and the curtains are still open as I left them. The curtain is a very nice custom made one that I made. It was hung on a temporary basis that never got addressed for two years until I put it on rings. She is only three years old and I don't think she even knew that there was a window there. Now there is a little more than just an overhead light in the room. Now there is some real daylight. If you use separate blackout curtains it leaves your outer layer of curtains to be changed when you feel you need something different and you still have your blackouts. Have you looked at buying blackout lining at Joanns? Do you sew? You could do one solid panel across the window, as opposed to one on each side, and just have it slide to one side when you wanted it opened. I used to do draperies and they used to sell one by RocLon that worked quite well. That was some time ago and things may have changed.

BM Chantilly Lace is a very neutral white. It tends to be too bright white in most homes, but it is the perfect color to compare other whites to when trying to determine the undertone. (Got this tip from Maria Killam) Color meters like the color Muse are not accurate enough to really measure very light colors and, in my experience, are not the best way to determine undertones in White. If you look at Alabaster next to Chantilly Lace you will see the pink I am talking about. Like so many other neutrals, white looks white until we paint a large area. On Trim you may never see the pink undertones. On a 100 SF ceiling it will be more obvious. If you want white and want to be safe, Cloud White is the most popular white sold by Benjamin Moore for a reason. It works with just about anything. You can sometimes do better with a bluer white if you have a light blue gray pallet or a creamier white if you have rich warm golds and oranges. But for a neutral color pallet, Cloud White is usually the answer.