Thanks for all the suggestions. The width of the area I'm working with makes things very challenging, doesn't it? val -- the advantage to your idea of roller shades is not having to worry about any cords hanging down. I did look at something called a solar shade at one time, but I think I may want a softer look. les -- one of my first thoughts was to use some type of pleated or honeycomb shade (because they are available without cords) along with a valance to hide them, just as you suggested, but somewhere along my thought process, I thought it would be nice to have some kind of single-panel panels to soften that side of the room. I probably should let that idea go because it may not be the best solution for the area, especially considering the limited amount of clearance I have to the right. We have Silhouettes in the LR, which I love, so if I have the Luminettes in the FR, that may flow nicely thru the house. One of my concerns about the Luminettes, tho, is when they're open, I wonder how much space I would have to allow for them to stack. deborah -- maybe you can answer my question about how tightly the Luminettes stack when open. sally -- do you also have the Luminettes? parma -- thanks for the pictures. We don't get The Sun Times, we get The Tribune. I looked at the paper's website, but couldn't find the article. I'll try the Divine Design website. The thing is I don't really want a lot at the windows and after having nothing there for such a long time, anything will seem like a lot to me, I think. I still want to have them very open during the day, especially on a day like today with all the snow we're getting. We have some very large pine trees in our yard that look so pretty in the snow. I hope to head out to a local drapery store on Monday to at least get some suggestions there.

Your second picture is too small, is that the thumbnail version of the picture? It's easy to post your pictures from Photobucket here. Just copy and paste the HTML code into your post. From what I can tell from the first picture, I would probably just leave them bare, as they windows and view are both nice.

I like the idea of using drapes and thanks for the pic @valinsv and I will probably be stealing your bay window look with the candles etc. it looks great. Our living room is tiny and I have noticed that since I removed the vertical blinds, the room feels so much bigger than before, which is why I wanted to go with something mounted inside the window. Do you guys think that using the drapes will make the room feel small again, or will using the inside mount blinds, make it even worse? The drapes across the window will certainly make my life a whole lot easier. Someone had also mentioned traverse rods which I had never heard of. I have looked into them, but I am not sure if it is a solution I would like since it seems as though I will have to use the little hooks on my blinds. Has anyone ever used them, and if so any thoughts? Thanks for the tip on the handles, I will look for them the next time I am at Lowes. Thanks!

By cafe curtains, do you mean the tiered set? I'm just not sure what that means? I always think of kitchen curtains! How would I mount a curtain rod from the ceiling? I once had regular curtain rods before I put in the seat, but with the roller shades, there is no place to put the rod hooks. I don't want to block off the windows as in the first photos-I mostly need to be able to block the extreme sunlight and provide some evening privacy if needed.