Surprisingly, I love the cafe rod in this setting....not a hint of "Grandma's kitchen" in that set up ;) I think that the black rod (and black window) and black rings are the key why it works and doesn't look like the 80's.

for the cost, you cannot do better than the flexibility, slight softening to the area, easy to maintain nature of café sheers. If you want more "oomph" you can put a valance across the top. or install the café rod projected out and have a solar shade behind it. A lot depends on privacy needs, sun blocking you desire, etc.

it depends on whether you want some daytime privacy or not, while still seeing the sky. my kitchen window is very close to a pretty busy sidewalk, so i opted for cafes.

both cafes and roman shades are good looks. just depends whether you want a top down, or just the bottom, approach.

The Romans would look beautiful, just keep in mind moisture from the sink below the fabric.Raise them up when you do dishes.

Also, have you thought of shutters? Cafe-Style would look amazing in that space as well!

Thank you all for great responses! Do you think it would look weird to have those cafe sheers on kitchen window if very close to it are balcony doors with full lenght curtains?

As a rule I would not hang curtains behind a sink. That's something that might look good in a picture, but in real life it doesn't translate. There is too much dirt, water, dust, grease, grime going on in a kitchen and especially right by the sink to think that that is a sanitary thing to do. Leave the idea in the picture.

I agree. It is a great look in the photo but the reality is you will be having to wash the sheers frequently. Shutters or roman shades would be a better solution.

Thank you for bringing that up, but I hope that it won't be a problem since we did a bit deeper counter, so there is a bit of extra space between sink and window. But I am worried about overall cohesion of space - is it ok to have full lenght and cafe length sheers in the same room?