Bay Window Dilemma

We have been living in a fishbowl since we moved into the house in August.  We have a wonderful bay window in the front of our living room that needs some window coverings.  I have been going back and forth on what type of window treatment I want to put up.  I love the woodwork and arches at the top of the windows, so I want to try and keep that exposed.  But, I don't want fabric hanging where toddlers can yank on it and pull it down.  I love the look of Roman blinds, but they will surely hide the arches. 



Bay Window after it was painted - Photo of Nana with the boys.

After thinking about it for some time, I decided to go with hanging panels and a bay window rod along the top.  Here is an example of what I was thinking about...


Image is from
 http://furniture-showroom.blogspot.com/2011/09/kitchen-bay-window-treatments.html

 I picked up the bay window hardware on Saturday from JC Penney.  As soon as we got home I ripped open the box and was ready to install it right away.  Unfortunately, the hardware was too wide for the fabric panels that I chose.  So, I was on to option 2.

I returned the hardware to JC Penney and headed to Ikea to pick up the DIGNITET wire curtain hanger.  It mounts on the wall and then there are two additional corner pieces pieces that I purchased to string the wire through along the corners in the bay window nook.  It was pretty easy to hang.  It took a couple of hours because I measured wrong...twice.  I hung my panels (see above photo for the idea) and was pretty happy with the result.  As a bonus, we were no longer viewable to anyone who walked by the house at night. I started to tidy up the space, tossed a blanket into the corner where one of the panels hung and suddenly the wire popped and all the panels crashed to the floor.  Ugh.

Sooooo...now I am rethinking the whole project and leaning toward roman shades.  The drawback is the loss of the arch, but I think I will prefer the look over the hanging panels.



Making Roman Shades isn't that difficult, but it requires exact measurements and a good diagram.



Diagram of the shade.  I use Terrell Designs website to calculate the dimensions. 
They also have an excellent tutorial for anyone interested in taking the DIY route.

 I am going to use the fabric panels that I purchased already and will just deconstruct them for the roman shades.  Hopefully, I can squeeze time in this week to get this project completed. 


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