I detest vertical blinds; however, when we had this house built we had to have them. I scoured the stores and catalogs until I come find one I could live with. My main problem with them is that the "swing" when opening or closing them, thus sometimes causing them to break. I may not have found the "prefect" solution, but they are definitely much, much better the way I bought them: with a sheer curtain over them. Actually the "panels" are inserted into each of the sheer curtain panels. They hardly swing at all and even provide a light filtering privacy that I adore. So you have the ethereal looking privacy; they add to the decor ; and they don't have that "swingy" effect. Very nice indeed. I've tried to capture them in the pictures below.
~*~
~*~