I would either place a rod near the ceiling and do full length drapes, or - since I see a kitty house - continue with the cafe curtain look you have now. If you plan to pull back the short curtains, then I would go a few inches below the apron (the piece of wood below the sill, which you may or may not have).

I'm not sure the significance of comment regarding the kitty tree? FYI, the kitties do not mess with the drapes in any rooms in the house, they do like to get in the windows, so I usually leave them drawn open, cracked open in the middle or on one end slightly, this keeps them from getting scratched from kitty paws trying to open them up on their own. they do not climb on the curtains, none of them ever have.

There will not be shorter curtains, I"m replacing these with the longer ones.

So my question is should the rod be above the arch so that the whole window is covered or would it look odd to have some part of the window visable?

these curtains are not long enough to go to the ceiling. I'd need to add to them (the ceilings are over 15 feet tall)

So my question is should the rod be above the arch so that the whole window is covered or would it look odd to have some part of the window visable?

You could do it either way. But if I understand your post correctly, the height of the arch is 10 feet from the floor. So you need drapes that are in the 120 inch length range, and probably a bit longer so that the rod can be comfortably higher than the arch.

rjinga, I like it the way it is. My suggestion would be to post a query here - "Post pix of drapes/large window w/ rounded top" so that you can see what other people have done. Personally, I can't imagine curtains that hide the rounded top. I have seen some that were made to fit inside - they are on a rod shaped to fit the rounded area and gathered. I think that it looks odd when you use straight curtains that cover the whole window without following the shape of the window. But that's just me :)

My house is old - 1938 - so I don't have those fancy windows, but I do love the way they look.

After using DH (finally) as a opinion giver, he didn't think the curtains looked right being higher (but not completely covering) the window, so it looks like it will work best to keep them the height they are now and I can either alter these to have them puddle on the floor (cutting 1 1/2 feet or so off of them approximately) or get different drapes.

There is so much light behind this window that I am going to have to get something solid to put behind these, even though they themselves are a heavy material and they are lined. without something behind them they are really washed out, because IRL, they are a gold tone background and the really nice contrasting fabric colors are lost!

Here's what they look like (the valance is temporarily hung on a regular rod, which will be changed to a valance rod that comes out about 2 inches from the wall)

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