How dark does the room have to be? Are you looking for total blackout, or is some leakage of light into the room OK? When the blinds/shades/drapes are open to let in light, do you need something over the windows for privacy?

Are the three windows connected by perimeter trim? Or is there wall in between?

Are you considering doing both blinds/shades AND drapes? Or one or the other?

Sorry for questions but no answers . . .

Mounting lined roman shades above the window trim near the ceiling should work fine. You can do that either with or without side panels to cover the edges.

graywings, some light leakage is fine, we are done with naps but they still have early bedtimes and like it to be dark when they sleep. I am thinking we will do either shades or curtains -- to do both is probably out of budget unless we use IKEA for everything and I'd prefer not to do so much DIY in this house. We are pretty slow and the last time around there weren't even any kids. For some reason the local places seem to do one or the other, except at the higher end. I guess we could do shades now and add curtains later?

Annie, is it not a good idea to mount on the trim? I thought that would be sturdier than the drywall.

Thank you both!

One other question, I would prefer not to have loose cords but can't reach the top of the window. Do the continuous loop mechanisms work well? Or would it be better to put a pull string on a cordless shade?