You have purchased a beautiful property! Congratulations! I think you should first concentrate on putting blinds on your windows. Go for low profile blinds that fit inside the window frame. That will take care of any priority privacy issues and direct sun issues. Then relax. I would suggest living in your new home for a while before you make any decisions about curtains. Figure out your furniture placement, decor, paint colour etc. and make your curtain decisions be part of the bigger picture. If you have the same blinds on all your windows then you already have a unifying element to work from. You could have side panels on some rooms and not on others. If you decide to add side panels to a certain room, then I would add side panels to all the windows within that room. Keep the look consistent within that room. If you add side panels to both living room and dining room, they don't have to be the same but they should go with each other. If you have plain cream panels in your living room, then maybe go for the same cream but with a pattern in your dining room. Good luck! One thing in your favour, your rooms are beautiful without anything in them!

Lovely looking house

Mini-blinds in every window will give you privacy and light control until you can take the time to make more thoughtful decisions about your window treatments ... and you can choose window treatments that will cover the tops of the blinds so you can leave the blinds in place and pulled up even after you add curtains or drapes or valance, keeping that additional light and privacy control in place.

Would paint all rooms that are visible from an adjoining room the same light neutral color before moving in -- a pale gray or a very pale brown (tan without the pink or yellow hue) could be a good idea unless you already know you'll be wanting a specific color such as blue or green for those areas to go with furnishings you plan to use.

If you choose double rods, you keep the option to add sheers on the inner rod.

I like the idea of a valance with blinds beneath them but would prefer solid color valances. In a bay window, drapes could have a heavy vibe.

Really like all that natural wood trim.

Not a fan of the busy print valance.

Wallpaper looks too "busy" -- would remove it in favor of paint.

Not a huge fan of the green around the fireplace but what colors you use could make it work.

You need this link, and possibly a color consultant, for your beautiful about-to-be home.

https://www.houzz.com/magazine/11-terrific-paint-color-matches-for-wood-details-stsetivw-vs~9025200

Start an Ideabook for "Victorian house wood trim interiors" to get ideas. Yes, you'll want to showcase that incredible fireplace. Here are different rooms with some of your features. Wait on the window treatments for now. Would the current owners leave the current drapes so you can deal with the windows later on?

Midcentury Living Room · More Info

Portola Valley Craftsman · More Info

Brookmont Bungalow · More Info

Brookmont Bungalow · More Info

Beautiful house! We have a similar lots of wood trim Victorian situation. It’s a great challenge!

Your selection depends on how traditional you plan to be in this home. Shutters would often be installed in bays with fixed panels.

Please don’t put mini blinds anywhere

Agree with Kathy! And when and if you remove that tile, be careful maybe the original is behind it... could the green be the original?

Since you have so many windows and you need a privacy solution right away I would suggest doing cafe curtains on the bottom half of all those windows on tension rods for the immediate future. This would be a less expensive route, won’t hurt your woodwork and give you enough privacy from your neighbors. It will leave the top half Oren for light. Take your time to decide on a more permanent solution for the future. You can even add decorative side panels if you choose.

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Here’s a photo in a newer home were we did cafes ( actually in all the windows in front of the house) for privacy reasons!

Oh! I’m pretty sure that green tile is original to this house! The Victorians loved color and all that woodwork and embellished was meant to be enhanced by the latest hand printed wallpapers! Then the addition of ones collections and unique furnishings to go along with it! Try Bradbury &Bradury for starters.

The tile would have made sense back in the day. Perhaps surrounded by a colorful William Morris design! Maybe not today’s taste but all the rage back then!!

Its amazing

" and replace that tile" would be my last thought.

😂 the dilemma when you buy a historic home RL Relocation! It appears this one looks to need some work; the ceilings have had something awful done to them😞. But the bones are nice! I’m not suggesting the owner turn it into a museum BTW! Just giving some historical context. I grew up in an old Victorian home my parents bought that was in desperate need of work. A beautiful house full of windows and stained glass. My mother painted all the woodwork and and the walls in light pastel colors! The house came alive!

Wonderful house. Lynartist's ideas about cafe curtains on tension rods would work well and be quite easy to DIY. Off white is a classic choice that will coordinate with new wall paint. It will also not upstage the valences as bright white would if you decide to keep them for a while. A quick, cheap option is paper shades ($15 for a 6-pack) from a big box store or amazon. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00XA4SAC8 They'll last a year or more in many locations.

Take a look at my "Wood trim" idea book where I parked the photos I put in my comment. Those photos will lead you to other Houzz photos of houses somewhat like yours. What I love about the ones shown is that the carefully chosen furnishings, modern and simple lines, is a beautiful contrast to the ornate trim in Victorian homes.

Work with the palette you have: light gold floors, red gold wood trim, that mint fireplace. For now, plain straight cafe curtains--no valences--will be a good placeholder for now. Later do bottom-window shutters stained to match the wood--no curtains at all.

Your palette can include golds, browns, reds, with just a hint of mint. Furnishing can be camel/saddle with wood legs. Here are some rugs in that palette with mint green.

Thank you all for the comments and ideas. The green tiles are original to house and will be staying. Previous owners for God only knows what reason, textured all the ceilings in the house. The inspector said it may have been to encapsulate asbestos but I will have to get it tested. I will probably end up putting some type of wood paneling on the ceiling but I'm not sure.

Lauren do not add wood to the ceiling just paint over the texture

Yikes! If anything, Sheetrock but not wood paneling 😳

Victorian houses can be very dark. And because they're ornate, modern additions should be of high quality and very simple to showcase the house's features. So a simple, warm white ceiling would be must more suitable for a new ceiling.

In a home this old, you are probably going to run into bigger fish to fry, as they say. For example, are you going to remove window AC and install whole house HVAC? How is the plumbing and electric? I agree that sheer cafe curtains on tension rods will work for the next year as you iron out any function issues and get your ducks in a row regarding form.

Victorian Splendor · More Info

I think we are all excited to see this project come to life! good on you for keeping the tile and not painting the trim white, when we moved into our rural farmhouse, it took my parents like two years to get all the paint of the cherry wood trim...........

That window treatment and wall paint are perfect, Deco--modern, simple, and showcasing the beautiful wood features.

My hubby and I bought a similar house when we got married. Not sure where you are located, but our windows were like sieves and that first Thanksgiving right after we moved in with our 4 kids, we woke up to 52 degrees inside. We kidded we had a “wind factor INSIDE” our house. We got the furnace fixed and slowly replaced the windows. Why do I tell you this? Because, we needed window insulation until we could do the replacements. I made insulated roman shades for each window. BIG job but it really helped for several winters! And looked good too. So my suggestion is get in and check out the conditions in your home and it will tell you what to do. Oh, did I mention the home was with the heirs of the original owner. Oh yes, and she frequently dropped in to keep us doing the right thing. Yes, her piano was still in parlor so we had quite an experience! Wonderful home. Btw, we had very similar tiles around our 5 fireplaces! Don’t remove it. 😉

In case I was too subtle, the original owner died. Her niece a nephew sold it to us.

I had an inspection done, the plumbing and electrical are all up to date, thank God. There is no HVAC but I am going to see how this summer goes before I decide to install it through the house. I live in Virginia and the summers are hot but being up in the Blue Ridge keeps some of the humidity at bay. The windows are original and there are exterior aluminum storm windows covering them. I am hoping and praying that they are sufficient to keep the house from being windy inside. I think the cafe curtains and tension rods will work perfectly while I get settled. I was not planning on working on the exterior of the home right away but it looks like the porch roof will need to be replaced and all of the windows and trim around the exterior need to be painted. The 115 year old wood is exposed. The previous owners did NOTHING in the way of maintenance. The walls have been scribbled and written on by their children, they didn't bother to paint over it. So it has been at least 13 years since any exterior wood has been painted.

Windy inside?? Omg

In lieu of air conditioning, perhaps start with a few well placed ceiling fans...

Do you have any more photos of the house interior?

Drafty windows can be covered with shrink flim. (10 windows, $10). The kits are fast and easy to use. The tape doesn't damage paint.

This is what I've done. We don't have neighbors😉 This is part of the addition from 1889. Inset cafe rods and sheers work well. That's all I use, hubby would have a cow if I covered his remilled woodwork!

We're outside of Richmond. I'm thinking, because of your location, a whole house fan could do wonders in the summer. I think I saw a central 2 story hall that would accommodate one beautifully.

As for decorating, I give the Victorians a nod in color choices, but keep it light, that's just me.

It's a love affair, good luck and have fun!

If it were me, I would get good quality roller blinds and cafe curtains.