I always recommend going as high as you can with curtains, so for you, just under the cornice. I suggest a white rod/track to blend in with the ceiling. Steer clear of a black track as it will stand out all the time, I think the curtains (the bigger expense) should be the thing that catches your eye. I would hang linen, or linen look curtains in this space in a soft dove grey.

Curtains, high up, single colour a few shades darker than the walls so that they catch the eye a tiny bit but are not a dominant new feature. Since they are a lot of fabric when you shut out the view you have to be careful that they don't swamp the look of the room. Not sure of the rod colour (dark to match the window frame, white to match the ceiling or grey to complement the other greys in the house) but I would go with wooden rods so that the curtains are threaded through them like the last two examples.

Thanks everyone, so many suggestions!!

For those that suggested a white or pewter rod/pole for the curtains near the ceiling, we like that suggestion, where do you recommend buying? not really wanting a standard one with the big ball on the end. We are from Melbourne :)

For the one that recommend the roller blinds within the window with sheers over the top from the ceiling, do you have any photos of this style? thanks.

I actually used tint a car. They do Home and offices as well.

Do you think roller blinds and sheers would look okay or funny considering the window frames are dark colour and quite chunky?

Katrina, I think you will probably get used to seeing the dark frames behind sheers and it won't bother you. After all, the dark frames are attractive in their own right, so why hide them? Unless you really don't want to see them?

Annb1997 I like sheers, I need to decide between sheets with curtains or sheets with blinds! (Then what height and colour)

Hi, although the sheers look lovely, consider your cat. We moved into our house which had sheers and within a few months they were shredded. (and our cat is well behaved) There is only so much you can do to avoid this. I'll probably replace mine with shutters! I would be heartbroken if I put in new sheers only for them to be ruined!

I agree with michelle69388, steer clear of sheers with cats, it only takes one disaster and then you have to start from scratch. But I would suggest sunfilter roller blinds to fit inside your window frames, which give just enough block to prevent furniture and carpet damage and also give privacy. And I would also use with these full length eyelet curtains with the rod hung as high as you could go so that the top of the curtains still sat nicely beneath the trim. Eyelet curtains have the advantage of folding back nicely and not creating as much volume at the sides of the windows and looking at the photos you have posted, this will achieve the simple elegant look you are wanting. I helped my brother do this at his house a couple of years ago and it looked fantastic. Nice colour choices! Good luck!

We are still indecisive about which way to go here..

We have decided to go with CURTAINS with no sheers or blinds.

Do we bother with thermal curtains/blockout? We just want them to be private for if we go on holidays you cannot see in at all! The large window frame is 260W x 210H. The ceiling is 270H. The smaller window is 180W x 210H and this curtain will most likely stay drawn all the time as the view is off our bins and the neighbours clothesline.

The carpet colour will have to stay for now.

Are we thinking a shade of grey for the curtains?

The room at the moment it's a toddlers play area but in future it will be sitting room. It has an open brick fireplace and a view to the street. There is a lot of wall around the windows. It's been freshly painted so we want to attach something to the wall that will definitely be a permanent fixture!

I think it's better to have lined drapes as they will hang better, last longer while exposed to sunlight, and provide more privacy. Blockout is a good idea if you are wanting complete privacy for both windows. Otherwise, you leave curtains open for light?

As your walls are white, white drapes will blend in well. Otherwise, if you want to make a feature out of the drapes, a light grey would be lovely.

The pewter rods will look good with either.

Our walls aren’t actually white, they are Limed White Half (a light beige grey)

Would be good to borrow fabric sample books from your local suppliers to try out at home.

I like that colour.

Some close colour matches:

your paint colour

Do you think either of these shades for the curtain??

Katrina, if you want the drapes to blend in with wall colour, then the Iight shade will. If you want the drapes to be more of a feature, then the grey one will accomplish that. Girlguides makes a good point about darker possibly shrinking the room somewhat. What have you decided about length of drapes? Will you take them to the ceilingor o lay just beyond the window frame? This may affect your decision about colour.

yes, I agree about need for blockout as you mentioned this room gets a lot of sunshine.

We've just installed roller blinds. We're on acreage so privacy is not an issue. However, we did put block-out blinds in the bedrooms (for sleep purposes) and sunscreen mesh fabric blinds in all other rooms. Re the latter, you can see through them whilst still retaining privacy. They stop 85% of the sun's heat and up to 99% UV. We moved to the northern rivers area of NSW earlier this year so we'll see how we fare in the summer. I suspect the see-through blinds will be down most of the time but because they're almost transparent they don't block the light.

A big thank you for your input everyone! Here is the finished result. We went for metal rods and a grey eyelet curtain. My husband wouldn’t let me hang the curtains high and wide, so they are wide and a little above the window. Will give them a light iron in a few days if the creases don’t hang out :)