Hi Avesmor.

Black panels in a dark olive room might work, but probably not with both your dark ceiling & billowy white sheers. Imagine taking a car trip: you can drive east or you can drive west, but you can't do both at the same time, and in decorating terms, that's what you'd be trying to do with that combination at the window. The effects of billowy sheers & heavy curtains would cancel each other out and you'd end up driving in a circle that brought you right back to where you started out: in a cave.

Not, as they say, that there's anything wrong with black curtains. I once used black velvet curtains in a room painted paper-bag brown with white trim, where they made a crisp contrast against the lighter walls & repeated the dark tones of the antique mahogany furniture & black shades on the all lamps. Later, I used the same curtains in another room, this one painted all black--walls, trim, floors--and it worked OK because in that room the black was merely a background for everything else--a copper-pink antique rug, browns & golds in the upholstery & lots of antique gold in lamps & picture frames. In each case, though, there was some sort of fairly strong value contrast to make it work. Here's the thing: the real problem with your room doesn't have anything to do with curtains. It's that ceiling.

I know, self-colored ceilings are considered fashionable these days but they're not at all to my taste, so before I did anything else I'd repaint the ceiling. If you have some sort of aversion to white ceilings, you could do ivory or buff or a really pale salmon or even a pale tint of the wall color. Basically, anything that restores the visual dimensions of your room will help. Them after you've eliminated your room's current cavelike aspect, you'll be better able to address the rest of the decor.

Thanks - I completely see what you're saying. I'm not sure why that combo kept coming to mind - it's a million miles away from my usual earth tones. I agree with you, and am glad I was not impetuous as I sometimes tend to be. :)

Our ceiling/trim color is an off white, SW Antique White, that looks nice with the green. It will not pain me to lose the green ceiling in this case! Not sure if I will have time to get the builder's guy to do it (we close in about 2 weeks)... but maybe an early honey-do...