This is, indeed, a toughie.

I found a pic of someone who put up multiple panels on one bank of windows (theirs aren't different heights though).


My gut tells me to treat all 4 windows as one bank and put a rod at the top with one panel at one end and another panel at the other.

Do you need these to close or are they just to soften the look of the window?

If it were my house, I'd probably put some well-chosen roman shades on each of the 4 windows.

Ones that are soft like these (BUT with different fabric)

Run your trim covering your curtain rod at the appropriate height for the side windows and wide enough to cover the top of the tall windows, then run sheers to the floor. If you can't bring yourself to cover the tops of the center window use a rectangle lattice on the trim board, but leave out the board itself in the middle, going just enough higher on the side that enough meat is left to cover the rods

I know this will be expensive, but I would suggest Plantation Shutters here. On a smaller budget you could do Roman Blinds, treating each window individually.

Agree w crazy life that plantation shutters would look great. If you are looking for curtains to soften the space then hang one rod across the entire set of windows higher than the middle two. Get extra wide panels that will hand at either side when open Nd cover all four windows when closed .

Here are some pics that match how I would dress windows like yours. I like the really large window (Uneven) that has the curtain shaped to the windows, that would be my first choice of window covering for uneven sized windows. I would go with the bamboo ones for individual window covering and maybe colour them black to match the room and break up the white wall. The third (images) I would use if I wanted to give the illusion of the windows all being the same size.

Make sure you do a search for arched window treatments for more ideas. Naomi's first picture is spot-on for a really low budget window dressing for those windows, if you don't need light control. You could buy electrical conduit and bend it gently into a wide arch, roughly the curvature of your ceiling pitch and then spray paint it , (white, (?) black (?) bronze). If you do it right you won't really see the conduit anyway, so I'd do it the color of the wall. Pick out some fabric you like and wire it to the conduit. (drill holes completely though the conduit where you want the wires to be) and wire any fabric of your choice to the frame. Place plastic shopping bags in the puffs of the fabric for the look you want, and iron on webbing to hem the panel. Then bolt the whole thing to the wall.
Good Luck.

you put your pole wall to wall, the highest you can without the finials touching the ceiling but very close. You put only 2 big panels, touching the floor, and when you push them on the sides, they will cover the wall.