My daughter just purchased a home that has windows that are 94 inches wide. I can't remember how tall they are. From Next Day Blinds she purchased 2 inch wooden blinds for the windows. It looks wonderful except you can't pull the blinds up unless you have two people -- one person holding each end because they weigh so much. The only time they'd have to be raised anyhow is when she needs to clean the windows. Metal blinds would be a lighter choice or silouette blinds, but she wanted the wooden. You could also have two 50 inch blinds under one valance.

Thanks k9arlene. I did wonder if I'd even be able to pull them up myself. Although, I thought I would always pull up the ones in my bathroom and I normall just open them. I'm sure that's how it would be in the LR also.

I'm considering this because I've been thinking about doing away with the long curtain rod above and buying two short ones for the ends.

I have 4 very wide windows on my side porch/family room. I have to measure how wide they are. Each window has a fixed panel with casements that open out at each end. Of course I cant picture them adequately in my mind right now! I think they are equidistant.
We bought 2 inch cherry wooden blinds from Next Day blinds many years ago. They are on one common valance and the blinds are in 3 separate panels for each window. We are very glad we did it this way. What a pain it would be to raise the whole thing just to open one of the casements!
I have no pics maybe I can take some. The separation between the blinds is not noticable and you do get to choose the side where you want the opener wand to go on each piece.

Hmm. Probably three separate blinds would be the way to go. Don't think I want white, and the other furniture in the room is dark mahogany/cherry color so I'd probably go with wood. I haven't seen any fake wood blinds that I liked or the color would work. I'm also guessing I'm going to pay a pretty penny for these. The more I look at my sheers though the more I don't care for them. Having mixed feelings! Big surprise there.

I have a similar wide window in my LR that faces the street. I opted for operatable drapes, but if I were to do blinds in that area I would do it as cooperbailey suggests. I also have wood blinds in the bedrooms and my family room and even with smaller windows they are a pain to open (due to the weight) and do limit the light coming in. Have you considered woven wood shades--perhaps with stationary panels hung to either side? I'd love to change out my family room wood blinds to woven wood, but just put them in about 1-1/2 years ago so cannot (yet) justify the expense.

Something like this:

Here is a link that might be useful: Woven wood blinds with panels

We went with a cellular shade in our 8' wide window in the guest room. It is very light and easy to raise/lower.

Sharee, I have similar windows in my home (big window flaked by two smaller). I went with separate blinds. I would definately suggest getting one header to hold all three blinds. It will look better without the small gaps that separate headers leave, and offer more privacy, and light control. You don't want slits between the blinds to let in a glare.

Val - I may end up doing the operable drape thing. Then I need one of those rods for opening and closing or I'll never mess with it. I don't really care for the woven shades. My parents have them all over the house and I think I just got sick of seeing them growing up??

Sarschlos - I may end up using a cellular shade for our one bathroom.

Cathrugg - Thanks for posting your pic! I'm thinking it was probably the stark white. I have a white one up in my main bathroom. It's a small window and I need to paint yet but I have my doubts. It's like taada!!! You mean get a picture of them closed tonight? That would be great if you would!

Dilly dally - Will definitely get a header if I decide blinds! It probably looks unfinished if you don't.

Anyone with dark blinds hate the dust show factor? I just thought about that. I'm constantly dusting my entertainment stand and end tables.

Did you say DARK BLINDS????? Oh my. I thought I would go dramatic and put black 2 inch wood blinds in my bedroom (6 windows). It was my worse nightmare! They were constantly covered in dust. The dust really showed up well when it was sunny outside. They were always such a mess that I NEVER closed them. I threw them in the trash 3 years later and I now have roman shades -- love them.

k9arlene - lol. Perhaps I should reconsider!? Lighter wood probably would look odd. Guess it's better to think of all this now before I spend the money.

shesharee: Do you still have the sofa backing up to the window? If you do operable drapes you will need to pull out the sofa a bit--at least 6"--if you want floor length drapes. For my LR, I felt it was a more formal, dressier look. Previously I did have a layered treatment of sheers and drapes, but I felt that was too dated and now just leave my drapes open to the street in daytime. Since we don't often use the room plus we have a big shade tree in front, the lack of privacy doesn't bother me as much as it would otherwise. My WT were custom and very $$--we now think we spent way too much money for them. If you do want to do the wood blinds, my personal vote would be to do a white to match with your window trim/mouldings. There are many different shades of white to choose from--pure white to a creamy, antique white and in between. In fact, I brought in a sample of my window trim and matched my blinds to that--though if you've not painted your trim yet, it could well be easier to go the other way and pick the blinds first and pick a window trim color to match and then paint the trim while waiting for the blinds to come in. It gives a much more open look and balances out all the darker woodtones in the room. JMHO--so do what you want. I bought all of my blinds through JC Pennies in one of their window sales. I bought the kind where you can slide out the blinds and wash in the bathtub (no holes)--a tad more $$, but worth it. I still lust over the woven shades. I guess we all want something different.

Sheesharee I will get you a pic as soon as I find out where DH left the camera.... husbands!!!

We have a large picture window in the center with the two smaller windows on either side....the windows are 6 feet tall and I believe 8 feet wide (total)

Here is a pic before the blinds, which shows the size better:

And after....we went with the white 2 inch blinds. I really like them and haven't had any problems at all. We got them from home depot, and they were very inexpensive.

I forgot to mention that my husband hung the blinds himself. It was fairly simple.

I have blinds, but if you're in a part of the country with very hot summers and cold winters, what do you guys use? I'm thinking of curtains this year, and really thick ones because the electric bill was outrageous last year.

I just put new blinds in my living room and kitchen. My biggest window is 72 X 72 and I had to put two blinds on one rail for the warranty to be valid on that size window. I would have ordered it that way regardless, because the old ones were so heavy it just wasn't worth trying to move them up and down. They do have to be custom ordered. Our previous blinds were white, and we really like the stained wood so much better.

I just bought new Levelor 2" wood blinds from Lowes. For our larger Master BR window, I bought 3. We installed them so that the header covers are very close. You can hardly see the seam and I am pretty fussy.

We also bought them for our LR and Guest BR 72" windows. We bought their 72x72 for the LR No issues at all with regards to raising them. For the Guest BR I bought 2 because I like the option of being able to open up one side of the window and still have privacy. Both these windows are in the front of our home.

They can custom cut the width, if needed and the length is easily adjustable.