We need to get some shades for a big picture window in our living room, two windows in the kitchen and a sliding door leading out onto the patio from the dining room.

Just wondering what people's opinions are on roller shades? I mean aesthetically. Although any practical considerations are welcome too.

I don't think i've seen any home that uses them it seems to be mostly offices/retail locations that use them. I really dont care for them aesthetically.

http://www.hunterdouglas.com/sheers i think something from there would be nicer looking and more practical since in order to have both diffuse light and light blocking with the roller shades we'd basically need to have two shades installed which ads a big chunk of cost to the roller shades.

The sliding door (8 foot wide) we're probably just going to do vertical blinds like these http://www.hunterdouglas.com/vertical-blinds/skyline - i'm not too crazy about the extra wide vanes but at least i got us down to the 11.5 inch vanes instead of the 17 inch ones