It only took 18 months, but we hung our first Roman shade over the weekend.
In the down position, it looks exactly like what it is: an almost square (regardless of how it appears in this picture) piece of fabric hanging on the wall. Nothing very special about that. As such, I think it would look better mounted inside the window so that it was framed by something. However, when raised…
the stacked fabric takes up 9-10 vertical inches, and I didn’t want to lose 9-10 inches of my view out that window, which isn’t very impressive from this angle, I realize. (And that’s what it looked like yesterday. Today it’s covered with snow.) The #1 reason for building our house here was The View. I’m not going to block it so that my shades look framed. Plus, there’s the heat issue. The outside mount insulates better. I think.

Not bad for a first attempt. I’m pleased, anyway. The second (smaller) shade for this room is ready to hang, but we have to get more hanging hardware. Hats off to Roman shade artist, Terrell Sundermann, for her extensive instructions, advice, tools, and materials. We learned some things and are better prepared to tackle the 4 shades in the Darn Good Room. First, though, I’m working on the curtain (box pleats and tabs for hanging) for the sliding glass doors.

Slowly, slowly, I’m making progress.