My predicament: My family room has 10 ft ceilings. The top of the window trim is about 7 ft from the floor. The curtains we picked out for the family room only come in 84" length, which I thought would be fine. I mounted the rods right above the window trim and the curtains go down to the floor. However, after living with it for a few days, it's beginning to look...weird. Having all that space at the top of the window is making the windows look strangely out of proportion to the rest of the room. I want to remount the hardware closer to the ceiling, but that will mean that my curtains will stop where the window does, and I'm afraid that will have the same affect, just opposite (if that makes any sense at all).

What should I do?

In order for them to look correct hanging from ceiling height, they would have to be full length to the floor.

I was wondering about this too, actually. I can see how that would look equally dorky.

If you go with a higher rod to elongate the window, you have to complete the illusion:

For the curtains to touch the floor.

It's actually not a "faux pas" at all. Like many things in decorating, it all boils down to personal preference. Look in any magazine, from BH&G to AD, and you'll find it done both ways by interior designers touted as the best.

As many of you know too well, I am a big fan of long panels hung high, with bamboo, matchstick, or Roman blinds behind the rod to cover the top of the window trim.

Thank you, Nate Berkus, for a perfect example of how effective that can be.

Here's a sketch (made for another post) of how I suggested the idea to handle a set of small high windows.

The key, whether dealing with blank space above or below the window, seems to be to use the space or hide it.

To give you suggestions and ideas you haven't thought about before, so you know that what you end up with is what you like the most!