No, not without losing the curtain pole, and it gets cold in the winter so we want to keep it. Sliding shutters would look great but we have two similar windows and as you can see there isn't space for them to fully open, or is there? I think panels might be best but I don't know what would look best. I want to have full sun coming in in the winter and shade in the summer, this is a west facing window.

As bigreader has suggested any soft furnishing you can add will all help to reduce noise. Not knowing what kid of treatment you offer I would try a small well fitted head set for your clients playing soft relaxing music.

Ellen, as you have two high windows that do not need cover - especially when they add so much light to the room, if you wanted to have curtains on the large corner windows, there could be one stacking left on the street side and one stacking right on the other, with fixed roman blinds over the two high windows, using the same fabric. These will act like a pelmet and it will seem that the window goes to the ceiling and the whole effect gives a gracious look to the room (and I am so over roller blinds, they are practical, but boring). This is a sheer curtain, but I think you require something denser to keep out prying eyes at night. Sheer curtains don't permit much vision from the street during the day, just movement. At night when the light is on it is the reverse. So you could have block-out blinds behind the sheer curtains that are just lowered at night. Otherwise, you could have decorative curtains and blind, below are the latest ideas from Europe; I have tried to give you a variety of styles, as there was no mention of which direction you wish to proceed in your home. All food for thought, have fun. Tina Glasson

My first thought -- the picture ! It detracts from what you are trying to achieve IMO -- move it to another wall . Or another room . Put some vases there . Family pics . The TV . That is my next thought -- the TV should be where the picture is . Yes , there is the fire below . Yes , heat rises . But if you can hang a painting there , you can probably hang a TV there . Although there is a temptation to just swap the picture and TV , I think the picture will still distract . A non-landscape picture may look better , but that one is almost competing with the TV . The frame . The colours . In my mind , you either don't have a TV in a room , or you make it part of the concept -- you have basically done that with the picture , the TV is now a 'nothing' . A poorly executed nothing IMO . But another option if you are wanting the TV to stay where it is -- move it to your bedroom . Or sell it . Get a bigger TV , and mount it a bit higher and equi-distant on that wall -- it looks too low , too far to the right , and although maybe a bit small , the positioning makes it worse . Make it look like it was planned , not planned to fail .