I love top-down bottom-up roman shades that I just got for my bedroom and master bath. I just moved to a condo complex with neighboring buildings so privacy is important especially in bedroom. But natural light is too. The TDBU option gives you best of both worlds. I keep TD until dressed in morning and sometimes even put the TD at night so I wake up to some daylight. However, its not a budget option! At least the hunter douglas ones that I got. Most of the shades mount on the "ceiling" of the window opening, so there is usually a little more mounting opportunity than the side jambs. The specs of each shade will give you the exact clearance you need. Graywings' picture of the outside mount is very helpful. It also reminds me that it measuring to the nth degree on an outside mount is not so critical as an inside mount. You have more fudge factor on height and on width which is important in DIY mode. Outside mount profile may be more of a concern based on the view in the particular room. Looking head on at the window won't matter much. At my last place I had wood blinds outside mounted and you entered the room from the side of that window. I wasn't crazy about the profile gap, but I didn't stress over it. I'll see if I can find a picture. [update: Actually on further reflection, what bothered me was the gap created from the curtain rod and drapes that had to extend past the blinds valance. but only an issue from the side view. something to think about.] Here I reluctantly spent the big bucks for the TDBU Roman Shades for Hunter Douglas for the bedroom/bath, but I have other rooms and will probably buy online for those, so I am interested in what responses you get on that part. This post was edited by wendyb on Fri, Jan 3, 14 at 12:30

What a beautiful home! Love your trim and siding details! The issue is that there is no room inside the window to mount blinds inside - only about 1/2 inch -(even though the window sill extends out about 3 inches at the bottom of the window, there is not enough room in the inner window to mount blinds. I am concerned that if the blinds are mounted to the outside trim that they will jut out past the window ledge at the bottom 1 inch or so and it will look odd (also the window casings are about 3 1/4 inches wide so I will lose about 1/2 of the width with the outside mounted blinds. I was intrigued by something suggested on another post (I think it was Les) about mounting a cornice just above the window frane to hide the window hardware - I am calling Hunter Douglas now... they don't have a photo of any outside or trim mounts on their website...

My parents have them (or knock-offs) and they still look nice to me. Their home/decor is contemporary, if that helps. As an alternative, if you are hesitant to get the Silhouettes, take a look at the HD Designer Screen Shades (we got the the Flat Roman style), rather than the Silhouettes (we only have them in two recently reno'd rooms so far--the rest will get them as we go along!). We have our windows open a lot in the warmer months, and I envisioned the vanes between the sheer panels of the Silhouettes (which would be in the "open" postion during the day) becoming coated with dust and grime (the tops of our basemolding collect dust on a daily basis). I like the clean look of the screen shades, and the fact that they let light in, even when in their "normal" lowered position. Some "fabrics" are more sheer (open-weaved) than others. In our small guest bath, we opted to forgo a valance, but we got one for our "office" to give it a bit more "presence," while still looking sleek and non-fussy. HTH

After looking at options for WT for my dining room, I realize that the living room has unique challenges due to the remodel. I replaced 2 slider windows, which I now regret (long story), with one window that is actually 3 windows together - narrow casement windows on both sides of a large fixed window. This room is used solely as a music room. The challenge is the hardware (crank and window lock) on the casement windows. The depth of the window is 2" and the crank takes up more than 1" of the recess. Not a problem for drapes, which would hang outside the window, but limits my options for installing shades / blinds in the window recess. The ceiling in this room is sloped, so hanging WT from the ceiling is not a good option. I would like to have 3 separate shades / blinds that operate independently. Some options: 1) wooden blinds, with a single header across, recessed in the window; stop blinds at bottom of glass - crank will show when blinds are down 2) honeycomb shades, with 3 separate headers; stop shades at bottom of glass - crank exposed when shades are down; use valence across top of window to hide separation between headers 3) honeycomb shades, but use stationary drape panels between windows to "hide" header separations - I think the side windows are too narrow for this. 4) wooden plantation shutters - extend far enough out from the window to leave space for crank and window lock. Problem is that I will be able to tilt, but not open, the shutters on the center fixed window, which will obscure the view and may reduce too much light