I'm a big fan of bosporus flax and love your pillows! I don't know that using only valances would look terrible, but IMHO I think that panels would look better. I recently made bosporus panels for my guest room, and love the way they look. (Before I'd just had faux wood white blinds with very sheer narrow panels. I even plan to make mine wider since my window is really a little big for just one 54" panel on each side and I should have made them wider.) With your situation, I think I'd just pull the furniture (is it your sofa?) out from the wall a bit (6"-8")so that the panels could hang behind--or perhaps put your current layout on here and see if there are other ideas about how to arrange it. Without seeing the room, that's my suggestion anyway and I look forward to seeing whatever you make from your bosporus flax fabric--I'm sure it'll be pretty.

If you like Romans, take a look at jcp.com. They have some double romans (I got Spencer II) so there is a sheer behind the light-filtering shade, operate independently. The cords can be a hassle (2 sets) esp. on the 72" long ones I got for my slider. But on normal windows they're OK. I really liked the "double Roman shades" they had last year (no name) for my BR, DR, and study, but they don't seem to have the same ones. The headrail was slightly different from the Spencer II. I think the last time I visited the website they might have had a new (Jackie?) roman that might have been a double too, in an ivory color that might look nice in your kitchen. HTH. Sheers down

I have a window that is about 114 inches wide (made up of 3 windows like yours), maybe about 54 inches long as well. I currently have wood blinds, outside mount, and I do NOT like them. I am going to replace them with curtains . . .I just need to sew them! Here is why I don't like them: (1) You will be getting 3 different blinds, one for each window. There is no guarantee that the blinds will match up perfectly. I called the co. to complain, and they said it can be off within a certain distance per their standards, and if it exceeds that, the would replace them . . .but it was within that range, so no. (2) Open, the outside mount doesn't look so bad. Closed, yuck! I think it looks messy. (3) On a large window, it's a whole lotta blinds going on. Very, very angular, a lot of lines. If you were going with an inside mount, at least you could put curtains up to soften the edges, but with an outside mount-- not so much. On mine, the blinds are connected to something that looks like moulding, so I guess you could put up a rod that projects past that for a valance, but like I said, with an outside mount, panels would be harder. Just my 2 cents. I know some people who visit LOVE my blinds, so who knows. When I got them measured, I had it done professionally. People will come and give you free estimates and do measurements then.

Just a thought. If you go with no treatments, at night when you are dining, that window expanse will be a huge black hole. It will suck a lot of light out of the room. You mentioned outside court yard lighting..maybe this will take care of the cave effect night will have if you go with no treatments. We have this in our living and dining rooms. Day to day it doesn't bother me. When we have company we seem to want more light and I close the curtains.