I've had pleated blinds, metal horizontal blinds, vertical blinds, and wood blinds. Even though there are pretty pictures of blinds, blinds are not my favorite, especially vertical blinds. Blinds are impersonal, not cozy imho, and pleated blinds are very difficult to clean. They attract dust and pet hair, I think, by static, and vacuuming does not get it all. Horizontal blinds, if cracked open for some light, leave a striped pattern on the window which I don't like, are a pain to dust, and are pretty much "all or nothing", and you can't leave blinds open at night if you value privacy. Vertical blinds remind me of corporate conference rooms. Sorry, I hope I'm not offending anyone. Curtains on the other hand, can be soft and flowy, let light in without compromising privacy. You can wash them or dry clean them. You don't have to open and close every single day to adjust for light/privacy conditions. Curtains are easy to change out, and you don't need a custom size if your windows are not standard sized. I haven't had the pleasure of roman shades yet, that's my next new thing to try. More than you probably wanted,mikneleh... LOL! Have fun with your decision.

HI -- I have the very same bay windows . I put Hunter Douglas wood blinds fitted to the windows and have hanging drape side panels on the side walls on each side of the bay . So nothing hanging in the middle . I have the panels ( 95 inch length ) hung from the full wall height (8 ft.) on a rod that goes across the width of the whole wall. Or you could just have the rod the with of each side wall ,having a finial on the interior ends . So that would be ,two small rods with 2 wall cup brackets and two finial ends . I am not a fan of the shutters because of the cost but mostly because they block too much of the light and view . Have the window blinds and the bay interior the same color .

Take advantage of the asymmetrical quality of the window by placing diagonal fabric from one ceiling corner to the opposite floor corner and do the same on the other side, but do it at different heights. Another option is window treatment panels (over the entire wall) that look like screens. Put in search box Hunter Douglas skyline panels to see what they look like.

Could you post some pictures please, it would help, and you can get more advices.