Draperies and Top Treatments - help! Window coverings for living room- red sofa room

I am trying to decide what to do for window coverings for my living room. It has a dramatic 2 storey stone fireplace which is all brown tones on one vaulted end wall. It is overlooked by the dining room on one long wall from the upper level, has an angled cedar ceiling.

The other long wall looks out the front of the house and is about 18 feet wide by 8 foot high (the lower side of the angled ceiling) This wall consists of three windows, each 6' high x 4' wide, which end about 8 inches from the floor. There is about 14 inches of wallspace between the windows, with about 2' of wall space at either end.

The room will have 2 red leather sofas, a dark wood coffee table with scrolled black iron base...no other furnishings decided on yet.
I think I will be painting the walls a light tan color and the trim slightly darker tan or brown. The carpet will be a light tan or beige color.

Right now there is a solid wall of sheers across all the windows. It used to have a dusty-rose gathered valance straight across the top from wall to wall, with a panel of pleated rose drapes at each end. I've taken those down now.

The room gets only early morning light, so light blocking isn't a big issue. I think the room will be used mostly in the evenings. I like the look of drapes, but don't want a heavy look that covers the whole wall. I like the sheers, but was thinking of dividing them up with panels between the windows. Should all of the layers of drapes/coverings be the same length? Should they all be floor length?

Any advice would be welcome!

i like the idea of panels in between the windows and one on each end, but not so sure about the sheers. sheers seem pretty formal. is this a formal room? i didn't think it was.... what about doing inside mounted 2" wood blinds with the panels? then when you're using the room at night, you can just close the blinds & not have to mess with sliding draperies back & forth. and during the day, they can be raised all the way up & out of sight, or just tilted open. if not 2" blinds, what about another type of shade?

to keep the draperies looking light, what about a metal rod with the ring clips? do you like that look? it would pick up on your coffee table that has the iron base.

you could even use 4 short rods instead of one long one. easier installation & less expensive. plus you get to utilize 8 decorative finials instead of just 2.

i like the panel idea much better than just a top treatment/valance because i think you need to echo the vertical line of the tall fireplace. a valance would be a long horizontal line which wouldn't accentuate anything.

and yes, i'd go floor length. the windows are practically floor length anyway - no sense in stopping them at the bottom of the window & have them look like high-water pants!

take a look at what this member did in her living room (http://www.angelfire.com/ak/mycherub/newhome.html) . she used tab tops curtains & wood poles, but it'll give you an idea of what i'm suggesting. start at the 5th picture down.

Thanks for the tips. I just took a few photos in case they may help. They are here under 'house pics'

http://photos.yahoo.com/helen207

I like that idea from the pictures you posted. I can't tell- does she have horizontal blinds on the windows?
If I did blinds, would they just go to the window ledge? Do you mean wooden (brown) blinds, or painted wood blinds? Then the drapes would go to the floor in between? If I decided to do the sheers instead of blinds, should they go to the floor?

Any thoughts on color? Should the panels be darker than the walls, perhaps a pattern with colors from the fireplace?

thanks for all your help!

sorry - i can't see your pictures (my current employer has most photo places blocked!).

no, i don't think the other member used any type of blind underneath, but she could've. any kind of blind or shade can be mounted inside the window frame. it would only go to the bottom of the inside of the window. sheers, on the other hand, would look best mounted outside and floor length, in my opinion, but they could be done mounted inside just like the blinds.

do you have trimwork around your windows? if so, you can match the finish on the wood blinds to that. white with white, stained with stained.

colors for the curtains: i think in another post you mentioned a large piece of artwork in this room, and with red leather sofas, i think a stripe would be nice, or maybe a color-blocked curtain. it just needs to coordinate with the painting and possibly an area rug and the "pattern" created by the rocks on the fireplace. more than likely, the curtain will be darker than the wall, but don't focus on that, just find a fabric that you like that works with everything else.

How about these links instead? There is no trim work around the windows at all. Would white painted blinds be too white for the room?

http://www.quack.clara.co.uk/helen/P9290001.JPG
http://www.quack.clara.co.uk/helen/P9290002.JPG
http://www.quack.clara.co.uk/helen/P9290003.JPG
http://www.quack.clara.co.uk/helen/P9290004.JPG

those links worked! :thumbup: thanks!

i think if you paint those walls a tan color, and the baseboards the mushroom color, white blinds will be VERY white & will seem out of place. but if you decide on white baseboards then i guess white blinds will make more sense. but ultimately, i'd opt for keeping everything a little softer in this room, and more in keeping with the natural tones of the wood ceiling & rock fireplace. go with a stained blind closer to the wood on the ceiling and/or any wood furniture in the room.