We are not window treatment people either, but have started to add some as we've reno'd/decorated a few of the rooms in our house; two bathrooms and our office. They really do help to finish off a room. That said, we're not covering our kitchen bow window, or the DR bow window, though I might consider something for the DR window at some point--just for the window panes themselves, not to cover the whole bow-unit. We used Hunter Douglas' Designer Screen Shades in the Roman Shade style (ours are mounted inside the frames becuase of our window style/frame depth). The shades are very clean-lined and range in sheerness. With the sheerer weaves/fabrics, you can see outside with them down and they allow a lot of light in.

I recently bought a product called Veilish. It’s a window film made with fabric material. It’s semi-transparent, so it can provide indoor privacy without blocking the view outdoors. The best thing is that it is self-adhesive, and it can be installed and removed easily, so you don’t need an installation expert. I think you will definitely be satisfied with this product.

I would do something simple like Hunter Douglas Duette shades in their opaque fabric with the top-down/bottom-up option. They can be easily inside or outside mounted, depending on space available. Here are mine in my master bathroom. See how I have the top rail lowered to be able to see outside, but rest of the window is covered, but still allows light through. You can have them all open, all closed or partially open like my photo. This is the third house that I have used this type of blinds throughout the house and been very happy with them.

Sorry I disappeared. Regarding the main objectives: Our location is SoCal, and a majority of our windows face the South. So a lot of sunlight. Blocking the direct light falling in house is important, but we don't want to cut it out completely making the house dark (for the living room, kitchen and other common areas), And in the bedrooms we do want the blackout. The house is not fully furnished yet as we moved from a small apartment to this place, and that project is a separate work in progress. But from a general preference standpoint, we like the Earth Tones in colors, simple clean lines with the styles, and natural wood options as much as we can. In the kitchen almost everything is stainless color. And currently the flooring is a combination of dark brown and grey, and the carpet is tan. But we want to change the flooring to a lighter brown+grey type of LVP when the budget permits. So, any window treatment that is kind of neutral and can work with the current flooring as well as future changes would be great. Not sure if it is possible to give any ideas based on this info. And I know it is difficult without the real pictures.