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

They are only three months old so look new. Absolutely no problems and the quality is very good. They operate very smoothly. I did custom order through Penney's. I first did my internet research and had several quotes online. The sales rep was able to beat all my quotes. It was nice to able to see the various blinds in person, then I brought home the sample books to match color. That proved difficult with the tiny samples but I wanted neutral and am happy with the results. You have the choice of separate head rails like I did, or a single head rail. They are easy to clean though I have not needed to yet. I haven't decided if I will put my drapes back up as I'm enjoying the clean look right now. Mine are 3/8" double cell, 40"x72". Each blind was $268 +tax. The top-down/bottom-up function does increase the price but I feel it was worth it for my application. Here is a link that might be useful: Cleaning Instructions

I've bought a bunch of Bali cordless shades from Costco. I like the insulation, privacy, and I like the sun up/sun down for my bedroom and my living room. The living room used to have faux wood blinds...I'm not 100% sure I prefer the look of the cellular shades, but I do think they're more functional. I'm not at all handy and thought installation was pretty easy. I do have some doubts on the measurements for the bedroom windows. There are small gaps on the side of the shades that let in light, which aren't completely avoidable. BUT I wonder if I could have a smaller gap by mounting the shades in a different part of the window casing or using a smaller size shade, so maybe professional advice would have been helpful. I did talk to a designer about buying Norman or Hunter Douglas shades--she never followed through on a written quote, but the price was multiple times what I paid Costco. So I could throw away and redo the bedroom window shades and still come out ahead.

Each price was the ENTIRE cost for the motorized blind. When they go on sale, it’s usually 30-40% off the regular price. I was able to get 50% off because a few months prior I got a couple of rooms full of blinds and the woman who worked with me kindly took off another 10%. It was like $2400 for nine motorized blinds (including remote and installation). It doesn’t get much better than that as far as price goes. Go to Lowe’s and they will walk you through the entire process....and make sure to ask when they’re going on sale (which happens quite frequently).