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

I just bought blind from smith & noble. I had been going back and fourth about what to put in my great room and really wanted the woven wood blinds- The designer was REALLY helpful b/c she brought everything out as well as different liners (colors and types- privacy, light shielded etc) and held them up for me to see. I'm sure most local blind stores would do that as well, but i didn't not get overwhelming help at HD or Lowe's when I went and the local shops charged a fortune just to walk in my door. I haven't had them installed yet so no pictures, but wheN i ordered them they had a sale buy 3 get 1 free. I think I saw the other day they have buy 3 get "encouraged" me to ask her if there were any promotions going on and we found the one that would save me the most. Not cheap but for the help she offered it was worth it to me. They are based out of CA but I live in MA so they have local designers who come out to help all over th country. I believe the in-home consultation is free- regardless of if you purchase or not.. Hope this helps!

It would be nice to have a current pic, with the curtains you have hung, but by way of illustration I've inserted some below. The open alcove windows seem absolutely fine to me -- I'd added a round rug to accentuate the feeling that it's its own little 'room'.

I used blinds.com for woven wood cordless Roman shade and a Top-down bottom-up pleated blind for a bathroom. The instructions for measuring are clear, and if you can use a measuring tape, drill and screwdriver, you can install them yourself. I installed all of mine, including 2” wood slat blinds, and only needed help with the very large woven wood ones that I could not hold up by myself. check out their prices, also the local guys for an estimate, and maybe check out americanblinds.com for prices. Either company will send you free samples of colors and finishes and their customer service is good, in my experience. It’s not difficult if you are at least a little bit handy.