Help! - with my kitchen windows

Okay, so here's the deal: I'm Interior Design Challenged, and I know it. I decorate my house in the same way that I dress myself: I use what I love, with little regard to what is stylish or fashionable. I'd love to tell you it's "shabby chic", but it's really more of a "yard sale/thrift store/hand-me-down chic." I've always been perfectly okay with that, because I'm surrounded with things that really make me happy.

But I have A Problem. See these windows?



That's the kitchen eating area. There are few architectural elements of my home that I truly adore, and these windows top that list. I love that I can sit at the kitchen table and see every inch of my backyard, where Two Little Girls spend three fourths of the year. I love that they add a feel of airiness to what is probably the second-smallest kitchen on the face of the planet. (The smallest kitchen was in my first apartment. This one vies for a close second.) I truly enjoy summer mornings spent drinking coffee in the warm sunshine and gazing out at the lushness of the garden.

What I don't love is that there are no window treatments. Because, while I know I'm Interior Design Challenged, I'm just flat-out helpless when it comes to window treatments, and this being my favorite part of my whole house, well, I don't want to screw it up. I get little glimmers of ideas that could probably become something great, but I never know exactly where to take those ideas to come up with a finished product.

Here's my bit of a glimmer:



I love this apron*. I love the patchwork, I love the linen, I love the lace. I also realize how completely non-functional it would be as an apron, since I'm a messy cook and off-white linen would only serve to advertise that fact. But can't you imagine this as kitchen curtains? And if I did it this way, I could try to incorporate the peach color of my horridly ugly kitchen cabinets (that I'm still attempting to embrace for all that they are.)

BUT. But. What kind of curtains? I'm rather smitten with the idea of cafe curtains, except that then I wouldn't be able to look out those lovely windows, and I think it would really close in the area. So valances? Can I do valances in a kitchen without it looking weird? Cafe curtains with valances? But then where would I use patchwork, and where would I use the linen, and would it be too much in such a tiny space?

You see my problem? How on earth do I make these decisions? If you were me, oh lovely blog readers that I hope are more inclined toward interior decor than I am, what would you do?

*The apron pictured is from the book A is for Apron by Nathalie Mornu - my current fave craft book.