I'd do blinds. I hate short curtains. Plus, w/the wood, brick, carpet, beams, it just weighs down the room.

go to Blinds.com they always have sales. (to see the samples, go to Home Depot. they are owned by them and carry all of the books) I've ordered woven wood blinds and cellulars from them. they're perfect and well made. customer service is exceptional too. I had an 8' window and ordered a woven wood blind from Bali. it was under $500.

Cellulars. this one is in my sons room. it's a double, 3/8" in black, cordless

these are Silhouette or Pirouette blinds. a little more money.

Here's a woven wood. I'd also paint your trim white. it just looks fresher.

if you do use drapes, raise up your rod to a higher position over the window

Thanks for the tips. Looks like blinds.com is having a big anniversary sale. Perfect timing!

The challenge will be if you want a single shade the entire width. Many are limited to 96" or less wide due to the weight of the blind itself. If you opt for multiple shades per wide window, you'll have more options but will have to deal with light where the blinds meet. We ran into this with a 95" wide blind. There were limited options that weren't hideously expensive (as in over $4K for a single blind) and there would have been even fewer if the blind needed to be over 96" wide.

We had a front window similar to yours, 1 big center window, 2 small. I did 3 separate blinds because it was so ridiculously expensive to do one solid. Plus, if you want to open the small window, you can keep the middle blind down.

I would do three separate shades; inside mount. You have enough depth there and one large shade would be too heavy!

Roller shades would be great to maintain your beautiful view yet provide protection from u.v. rays, glare, and even provide privacy depending on the fabric you choose. There are many fabrics available wide enough to do one shade over each window.

To lower the cost for the project you could get readymade curtains much longer than 84" that would not truncate the window but rather emphasize height in your space.