I agree with oakleyok regarding the window treatment. Is there anything you can do to completely cover the white that shows along the top and both sides of the windows? Perhaps panels that hang straight down on the ends and a valance that goes across the whole top of the window.

The granite is Typhoon Bordeaux Backsplash is a Carena mosaic tumbled tile in a midi brick pattern. I was told that its been discontinued. The tile stores shorted me and was closed for the holidays so I looked everywhere for more and had no luck, I had to wait for the store to reopen so the installer could finish the backsplash. The painter was expensive. I'm still waiting for an invoice but it was in the $3500-$400 range after taxes. I couldn't convince my husband to rip out the cabinets so this was the next best thing. In the end, I'm very happy with the results. I made it just under my $10,000 budget and it feels like a new room. That said, I'll think twice before renovating again. Everything that could have gone wrong, went wrong.

Nice turn around, wombat. Great growing. Studied up, paid attention and followed the advice of the more experienced & knowledgeable contributors on this forum. It can be difficult to tell them from the wannabes sometimes. Congrats on the successful navigation. Your plants are lovely.

Agree that it's quite dark. Maybe all of those kicks require mood lighting though - I dunno. ;-) I think you definitely need something on your windows, and it depends on what you have on the other windows. You want to keep a uniform look from the outside, but that said, I would probably lean towards blinds.