Double Height Curtains

Thanks ever so much for your feedback on the fireplace dilemma -- I now have a lot of things to think about. Most pressing it seems I must do something about the windows, and the new question du jour is: what, praytell? Should I do shades or curtains? Do I address all four windows or just the lower levels? And then there's the adjacent (non tv wall) -- it has glass patio doors. So whatever happens on the fireplace wall must carry over onto that wall, as well. (You can see a rough old floorplan here). Shades would be the easiest and most cost effective, or perhaps it would be even cheaper to only hang curtains over the bottom windows and treat the top ones as transoms, as per Nelya's suggestion. But I have to say the double height curtain plan has got some traction... inside my brain at least. Turns out the height to the top of the window is 148," which is too tall to use the longest premade curtains I can find -- by a matter of inches. UGH. Who built this house?! So now if I go that route we're talking custom curtains and that means berserker cash. Let's look at some pictures and see if such a thing might even be worth cleaning out my piggy bank.

Leggy. Like Angelina Jolie.

What I do know is I don't want this to happen. I mean, that is my house.

Gone horribly wrong.

So there's a lot of drama inherent in the giant curtain idea. I like drama, but will they be too overwhelming?

What do we think about double height curtains?

And is there anywhere I can find them premade in lengths longer than 144"?

Once again I'm depending on you to save the world.

[Fawn Galli, House Beautiful, Tom Scheerer, Happy Home Workshop, Harpers Bazaar, AD -- thanks Pieter!]