Roman shades don't require very fancy sewing skills, just good measuring and patience and a large working surface for layout and pinning. If you have more will than budget, you can make them yourself for the cost of yardage and the rings, ring hooks, tapes, and cords. You will also appreciate velcro, a staple gun, and a few hunks of wood cut to the right sizes and a weight rod for bottom of each shade. Get a good book from the library, perhaps two or three, since they usually break down the steps differently. There may also be a pamphlet of directions at the fabric store. If you spend more than $50 per shade, you're having too much fun. "Drapery" fabric costs more than fabrics in the regular part of the store. Now that Scotchguard is no longer sold, you don't gain a lot by buying in the drapery dept. except that drapery fabrics are 60 wide, are designed to be seen from a distance and are planned with interior decoration colors in them. Unless you want the drape to admit filtered light, be sure to use a good sturdy drapery lining--this will extend the life of the fabrics by blocking sun that can rot fabric. Personally, I'm going to make my next roman shades from two Marimekko tablecloths from Crate and Barrel. Lots of choices there, even in the "Clearance" section of the website. Once you get to the point of fabric fading or you need a new look, you can buy another fabric, use the old curtain as a prototype, and recycle the rings and tapes if you need to. Don't try to get too tricky on your first roman shade project. Just buy fabric that you really like and can afford. You can make Victorian balloon shades with overlaid fringe trims on your second go-round. The more trims you put on the face of the shade, the more you complicate the folds. Best to start with simple design. If you plan to wash your own romans once or twice a year, be sure to prewash fabric sternly and dry it just in same way as you plan to dry the shade (I dry in open air, never a dryer). When you wash made-up flat panel romans, just untie the knots at bottom of panel and leave the cords strung up. This is sadder but wiser Florantha telling you this--the stringing of the romans is my least favorite part of the project and if I have to restring them, it's a week of adjusting and readjusting knots afterwards if I don't plan ahead. Fabric is the single simplest way to make a change in a kitchen and it allows countless ways to add or subtract "personality" in an interior design.

@JudyG, THAT is just plain BS. Just because you put quotes around your own fairy tale does not make it true, nor does editing your answer to something else just as wrong. I will repeat - until you come up with an actual published code, quite trying to claim it exists - much less add the word "most" to your supposition that there must be that one pot of gold at the end of some rainbow someplace to support your crackpot theory. "First in many jurisdictions, it's not legal to have a stove in front of a window." Still a bunch of nonsense no matter how many times it gets repeated on here. You will notice that not one of these people can ever come up with an actual code that states this, no matter how many times I offer them the opportunity to prove it in the last 5 years. The only time it is not legal is when the installation instructions are not followed in the first place, regardless of window placement. It doesn't even make the list for hazardous locations in section R308.4. https://codes.iccsafe.org/public/document/IRC2015/chapter-3-building-planning The Listing and Labeling of ALL cooking appliances contain clearances to COMBUSTIBLE materials ONLY, regardless of any intervening "protection" applied to that combustible material. There is no such thing as a different clearance to a tiled wall or any other non-combustible covering. There is no differentiation in the code, or the testing standards the codes refer to as to whether there is a window in the wall above countertop level, or how far from a window a cooking appliance would have to be if it were a requirement. If there is no minimum distance stated in the code, then how can it be a requirement?? Is it 1 inch or 10 feet? A window on each side of a range will produce the same cross wind as one over a range. Anybody who has 2 broken arms so that they can not shut off the burner for 2 seconds to close a window, probably should not be using the stove either. If the range allows the wall or window behind the range to get over 194°F, then it is the range that is in violation of the codes - not the window. Of course, we all know that CP's little community over the rainbow has gathered every old wives tale code that ever managed to make its way onto the internet, and amended their legal code to make sure they didn't leave any out...They can't even put expansion joints in their concrete slabs because if you end up stepping on a crack, you would break your mother's back!! If you want to watch the "fairytale code" people have a coronary, just skip the hood ;D

Only install wood slat blinds if you love dusting difficult things. I'd go with a roman shade or sheer curtains with a panel curtain layered over that (this is what I have in my house b/c old windows can be very difficult to find affordable shades for, especially if you have a ton of windows). I also have had window film installed on most of my old windows to help with the summer heat.

I live in the Midwest where we are blessed with real winters and buggy summers. We put triple track storm windows on our last house because we weren’t staying and didn’t want to invest in thermal windows. I was pleasantly surprised at how easy they were to put on and how really well they insulated. We were able to match the exterior color of our house trim and the sash height so they looked appropriate on the outside. Not replacing the window meant that we didn’t have to worry about messing up the interior aesthetics of an old house. Plus, screens are great for summer so you can open up your house. Honestly, if the windows in our current old house had been in good shape and functional I would have considered using triple tracks again. The only real downside is washing but I can hire a lot of window washers for the cost difference. So much better than what I remember as a kid!!