When doing traditional roman shades, you have to be aware of the stack of the material at the top of the window. If you are doing them for an inside mount, then you can expect to lose at least 8 inches of your view. If you use any type of a specialty lift system, then you can expect to lose even more. On this installation in Sparks NV, this customer has their roman shades stack to about 12″ in height. Because this shade is designed to be in the down position most of the time, they are fine with this look. As you can see, we did a hobbled roman shade in a semi-sheer natural roman shade fabric, so it is very beautiful to look through.

If the customer had wanted something to block the view or to provide room darkening, we might have suggested that we install the shade a few inches above the window, so the stack would not have taken up so much of the window. There are many different types of roman shades though, so you need to consult with a window fashions expert to ensure that you know all the options and that things are configured correctly for your windows.