Hi, Greenhouse -- I still feel pretty new here myself, but let me say Welcome to Gardenweb Kitchen Forum! My kitchen is still under construction. In fact, the masons came today, coincidently, to raise the bottom of my window by about 11" to get it above the countertop. Thus, I cannot give you any of my pictures, but here is a link to one thread about windows behind ranges with several pictures, and here is one outside link with a nice picture of a window behind a range with a hood. I am not really nervous about the placement anymore. I decided to raise the window up so that the bottom of the window sill (properly called a "stool" if you are speaking to a window vendor) is about 3.5" above the top of the burners. I plan to make a stool out of my countertop material (an idea I got from GW, cannot remember who), and so that will "catch" any pans before it hits the window. Other thoughts I have had that might be useful to you. I realize that it may be important to make it look like this was planned, i.e., to try to avoid having it look like I just stuck a range in front of a window. To that end, I plan to use some obscure glass rather than clear glass. The way I decided to do this is to have a fixed, non-operable window, with two layers of thermal pane. Inside of this, I am going to have a stained glass panel made up by a local artisan, and just place that in front of the thermal pane. Then, on the inside, I will have a pane of plain glass, just to make it easy to clean. As I already mentioned, a stool out of countertop material should also help it look less like a standard window. Finally, I plan to tile around the window opening rather than use a wooden casing, as many normal windows do. I think that with all of that, it should look planned. Another issue you touched on was the hood. Since the whole point of keeping the window was to preserve the natural light, I am planning to use as slim of a hood as possible. I am thinking of one of those ones with very thin bottoms (like this Fisher&Paykel) or one of those with a glass canopy, which many companies make now. Unfortunately, I really fell in love with this Miele DA 249 glass canopy hood , but it is very expensive. The downside to these is that they tend to look very modern, and my kitchen was supposed to look more transitional/traditional. Oh well, you can't have everything! Oh, another thing: my range will be 30", but my window opening is about 34", so I decided to get a 36" hood so it covers all of the window area. Mounting the hood may be a bit of a challenge, as normally they should bolt to the wall behind the range, where you and I will have a window. One option would be to use a hood meant for an island, so it would hang from the ceiling. I don't think this will work for me because I need to vent out the wall, but it may work well for you. Instead, I am planning to use a regular wall-mount hood, but to make a support that "hangs" down from the top of the window, down to the level where the hood mounts are. Hope this helps! A_D

I would do an inset treatment on the windows flanking the fireplace and the windows flanking the slider. You may not need them for privacy, but I think you are responding to the large expanse of "black hole". It's a conundrum really. I need treatments for privacy, at times, but instead of a black hole I have very nice, well lit, (and one "famous") view of a city at night. People who live in the country and have a great day view have nothing but blackness at night. (And I imagine snipers out there.) There isn't room for trim on the windows flanking the fireplace, in any case, and a treatment can't be outside mount on the inner sides due to the mantel. You do have the room to inset on all those windows and it would prevent the projection of treatment and hardware on the angled windows near the slider. The most functional treatments for a slider are either conventional curtain panels or a vertical system. I know right now that it is popular to put a horizontal treatment on a slider but the horizontal treatment must be fully UP and OFF the slider for the door to act as a door. I do not think this is particularly practical. If you don't need anything for privacy on the slider I would consider leaving it untreated, because you don't have much room for a vertical treatment. There will be a consistency of its own in this too: A fireplace or a door flanked by windows with window treatments.

I am looking for large 2 panel slider 10' x 6.8' with a DP50 rating for our home on the intercoastal in Wilmington NC with narrow frames/sightlines. Does anyone have a recommendation? I've been looking at Eurowalll and Fleetwoods. Fleetwoods are super expensive, but the quality is there although for the price $8800 for one door (not installed), you would think it would be impact / hurricane rated, but it is not. Want to maximize view with minimal sightlines and framing while also keeping with wind DP50 requirements and strength. Anderson and Marvins require a 3 or 4 panel and I want to avoide multiple panels. Thanks for any help!

Yes, for the corners, some of your fabric will cover more of your window. Make sure you get a rod that gives you maximum corner use. I would not use a center panel for the sliding doors, just on each side with one large blind underneath. For your bay window, I would just use the shades.