I had the same situation in a rental except we had venetian blinds in a horrible colour.
We had big old windows like yours and hung curtains on a rod higher than the window frame.
The best thing to do is take of the cheap valance that comes with the blinds so you can get your curtains closer to the wall.

We picked the random numbers of 6" above the window casing and 3" away from each end. That's where we attached the curtain rod brackets. It worked well and looked nice. In our big living room window we just hung 2 panels and left them open. You could do the same if you wanted and leave the vertical blinds attached behind the curtains.

I love the wood finish on your windows btw!

So funny- my husband and I have the same unsightly blinds and are covering them as we speak! There's probably a better way, but we bought a rod that has a 4 inch projection that can fit around the top of the blinds to hang the curtains!

If you really can't get permission to remove them maybe just open them up to the full width and put up drapes with a valence that covers the top hardware as well?

You could cover the rail with a simple valance on top, then get creative with the curtains. not sure what your personal taste is, but here are some photos so you can get a general idea:

http://www.bedtrends.com/product/valances/992083-53/46-in-w-x-22-in-l-stafford-valance.html

http://www.thehappywholesaler.com/sierra/Commonwealth-Home-Fashions-Shadow-Woven-Box-Pleat-Curtain-Valance---Insulated.html

Love those windows :)

How about a cornice board to cover the track and some heavy drapes? If you made it yourself it wouldn't be too expensive.

Hope that's helpful!
http://itssewyou8.etsy.com

A friend was is a similar situation - he took off the blinds at the ends about the width of a curtain panel and put up a tab curtain panel - the trick was finding curtains with buttons so you didn't need to mess with the vertical blind track.. you could probably do the same by cutting the tabs on top and re-attaching with velcro or snaps.. pop them off when you're ready to move.

You could hang a curtain on a ceiling track, perhaps full-wall, full-length theatrical draperies if you're feeling dramatic.

always hang your curtains about an inch or so from the ceiling. it'll make the room seem taller. the top part of the blinds isn't that noticeable (at least in the photo), since it's on the same line as the window-frame...

That's such a beautiful window, though, I'd be tempted to take the slats down and just leave it alone, if the view is as nice as it appears in the photo.

hang 'em high kid. 1st put a roman shade the width of your window hung close to the ceiling 2nd drapery hung closest to the ceiling. this way when the drapes are open the shade hides the mounting track for the vertical blinds. vertical blinds are so corporate, i don't understand any residential use.

We had venetian blinds on our patio doors, which sat smack in the middle of our living room. So we took down the actual blinds and pinned (yes, pinned) curtains from World Market into the existing spot the blinds snapped in to. It's definitely a hack but it works wonderfully.

Well, I live in an apartment, and all of them have horrible white verticle blinds. Sometimes, like in my case, you can just plck them right off, and it is just as easy to put them back on if you need to. Then you can buy some of those cheap rods (kind of like shower curtain rods, but for the home) and you can put some sheer curtains on it. But, if you can't do that, you can just take rods, and put them slightly above and to the side. That way, those ugly blinds will be covered! And you can have nice curtains to highlight the room.
Here are some links to help you know how to do this...

http://www.ehow.com/how_5262469_install-curtains-over-vertical-blinds.html

http://www.ehow.com/how_6368979_down-vertical-blinds-brackets.html

Hope this helps!!

What about the curved rods meant to go over a bathtub?

Who talked "land lords" into these horrible things? Mine fall out all the time too!

I am never certain just what to do when positioning curtains, but I definitely agree with leaving the blinds in place. Covering them up means doing very little when you leave and you don't run the risk of the being damaged in storage.

Ugh. I have the same problem, but my blinds are on a sliding glass door AND they're right on the front of the complex facing the street AND the staff checks every now and then to make sure all of the apartments look uniform! :(

My plan is the simplest one: Just put a curtain rod up high and hang some big curtains. I'll probably keep the blinds pushed to the side 24/7 as well.

I'm moving into a studio where the vertical blinds are in front of a sliding glass door, but -- get this -- I'm not allowed to put any screws into the walls, so a curtain rod is out of the question. I read somewhere online that you can remove each of the blinds and use rings or clips in each blind-holder-thing to attach a curtain panel. I'm gonna try it and see how it goes. Good luck to you!

If you pull the slats off (most just pull out with a small tug) sometimes you can insert curtains directly into the clips that used to hold the slats. The negative: you will still have the ugly bar at the top. The positive: you can use the pulley system to open and close your curtains (not to mention, you don't have to see that ugly plastic every day!). Just tape the slats together with masking tape and store them upright in the corner of a closet. Luckily, the slats don't take up too much space when they aren't connected to the bar. Hope this helps!

Could the top bar be hidden along the floorboard where there is furniture in front of it? Diagonally along the back of a closet? Tucked into a crawl space? If you could store it somewhere, then you could easily put up a simple rod and hang curtains however you like.

Check your lease- I lived in a few places which stipulated that the blinds must be left in place "to create a uniform appearance from the street". All I could do was cover them UP. But I have to say living in a city, the blinds weren't worst thing. I kept them open most of the time, but for a while, I had a neighbor who liked to stare and then I was super grateful for the blinds to close.

I used floor to ceiling filmy curtains which allowed lots of light but still maintained privacy.

I was also told by a cleaning service that it's cheaper to have blinds cleaned than drapes.

When I faced this dilemma, I used a similar solution that notjanedoe and MeganMarguerite suggested. I bought very cheap curtain rings from ikea http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/90151834, with a thin circumference. I attached them to the top of the curtain panel, and snapped the hook (carefully!) into the clips that previously held the slats. The valance hid the hooking mechanism. This worked really well, and was cheap solution. I liked the ability to use the pulley mechanism...

We took ours off and stored it in the basement rafters. Then I put the curtain rod screws in the holes that were left. I plan to just replace it when we leave.

Your style looks pretty casual. I'd go with some cafe curtains.....you get privacy and light and the windows looks good from the outside, too.

I leave the vertical blinds in place and cover the top with a valance or cornice (depending on the room), hang sheers, then hang proper drapes. This creates three layers of trapped airspace, which makes for excellent insulation when fully closed (nights in winter and late afternoon in summer) so my apartment stays temperate -- lower energy bills! When I'm home, I close the blinds and pull them all the way to one side, where they are covered by the gathered drapes.

Depending on what state you live in, I wouldn't worry too much about what your lease says. Large population "Blue" states (NY, CA, MA, NJ) tend to have reasonable tenant protections such that niggly lease violation like taking down and storing window blinds or putting modest amounts of screws in the wall are not going to get you evicted. (nor should it - the neither landlord nor his/her property is being harmed in any material way). Most tenants have more power under state L/T law than they know.

This will sound strange but, I'm glad to have the vertical blinds in my rental. If you were to see the offensively hideous windows you'd understand. Anyway, I took the super inexpensive route and just left the blinds hanging. I did try to diminish their appearance though; I hung IKEA curtains over the blinds using the existing valance. Yep, I sure did lol. Even though the blinds are still obvious, they don't look AS bad, and I still get to cover the old, ugly, drafty windows.

here's an example:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/9227376@N06/5423862647/in/photostream/

A piece of cheap molding across the length of the molding with the curtains hung from just the top of the windows down - or better yet, roman shades?

I have this same problem. We have a 32 foot wall of floor to ceiling windows in an old warehouse. We are not allowed to hang curtains in front of the window, but I've hung "static" curtains just covering the ugly vertical blinds. It softens the look and keeps them out of sight.

I sell these things (Eddie Z's, Chicago Market) and I can promise you that your landlord talked ME into selling them to him and that is entirely because of price! Any other window treatments for large windows blow the budget out of the water! I suggest you remove the valance (you can remove the "vane" and roll it up, bind it with a rubber band and voila) These things are not packed in 150" long boxes if you catch my drift... Then you're left with a small metal track to cover. I also highly suggest a flat head screwdriver or an over-limit credit card to do the vane removal. Those little nodes that hold the vanes in are a BITCH to replace and crack quite easily. I hate vertical blinds, trust me. I do realize I am polluting the world one window at a time, but I promoise it's always a last resort suggestion =).

Lots of good ideas, and I have used many of them successfully over the years. To soften the look of mini-blinds, I cut a piece of sheer curtain to the exact size of the blinds (hemmed the edges) and used strips of sticky-backed velcro to attach. Easy, looked great, but removing the sticky-back velcro was a bitch, so don't do that :) Next time I would just thumb tack my sheer panels to the wall or woodwork above the mini-blinds.

We took ours down, hardware and all, and laid it neatly behind the couch.

This is my thought:
Leave the blinds open as far as possible. Tie them together tightly. Then tie some soft, drapey fabric around them, securing them with ribbons.

Just place cafe curtains inside the windows, using a tension rod and drape or some fabric over the blind header.

Check out the following youtube video. It is not SPAM. It shows how to take down the slats and put curtains up using the vertical blind tracks.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fIZMDH3zxNM

HELP! I accidentally flagged a comment as offensive - I'm SO SO sorry, I honestly didn't mean it - I had highlighted the link to the 'vertical blinds hack" blogspot article posted by apartmentmeee so I could go there, which I did, and I loved the article and pictures - exactly the help I was looking for, but when I came back to read the rest of the comments here and saw the link still highlighted, I clicked the blank space next to it to make the highlighting disappear, and then the flag thing popped up, and when I tried to move the mouse pointer away, I accidentally clicked on the report as offensive button - I was horrified and when I tried to undo it I made it worse by reporting it a second time! I had hoped it was like on Facebook where you can undo a report by clicking on it a second time. Please accept my apology - there is nothing at all offensive about that comment - I hope you can remove the flag. I'm VERY VERY sorry apartmentmeee and Editor,