Yes, yes, YES!!! To the ceiling it is!

Absolutely YES!

yes, yes, yes & thank you for posting something about this very topic. my Mother absolutely thinks I am nuts for demanding 96" curtains!

I used to think the moulding around a window was for something solid to attach the rod to! I always hang panels above and out to the sides of a window, if possible. I also hang bamboo and fabric roman shades well above the window. This allows for the shade to be pulled up into folds that don't obstruct the glass.

what about a set of french door? They are in the bedroom, so I want drapes for light control.

High and wide when I can but not when there are cove ceilings and window moldings that make high and wide unsuitable.

Hanging curtains the right way, and ripping out this awful red carpet, made the room feel so much larger

http://mylife.luxperdiem.com/2011/08/progress.html

I like 'em high, but not so much wide. My house is "blessed" with so many windows that I'd have almost no wall space for art if the curtains were extra wide.

What if the bottom of the curtains is only going to the windowsill? Do you still go to the ceiling?

I'm so confused about curtain etiquette.

And just to clarify..."high" doesn't also mean high off the floor! Nothing like walking in and seeing those "high water curtains." I realize some may need to work around forced hot water radiators, but you have to get creative.

Yes, agreed. Love this first image from Elle. It takes a great eye to use that many layers ad colors so beautifully.

What about when there's a picture rail a few inches above the window? That's the situation in one room where I actually need curtains, and hanging them above and over the rail seems strange.

Okay, but all of the windows pictured are also really tall! How about some photos of "normal" windows with high curatins for inspiration?

What about a large, 85"+ wide, single window? I could barely find a rod that would span across, let alone worry about wide enough to extend beyond the window on either side. I needed curtains, though, because the window faces the complex across from me and everyone can see directly into our whole apartment.

I can see the improvement, but I agree that you lose precious wall and floor space for a small apartment. You literally can't put anything around or under windows when you do this!

Wide yes, high - maybe. _None_ of the photos show a modern apartment or standard house with the typical 8' ceilings & 6'8" window/door heights, totally without moldings. Photos showing an 16" gap of plain wall would not be quite as attractive! The drawing with the gap just looks unfinished.

I broke the 'high' rule because I wanted to reuse 2 sets of vintage sheers in my craft room, but definitely went for the 'wide' rule. It really does make a difference, it tricks the eye immediately into seeing a larger window. This can be really useful when your curtain color is high contrast with your wall color. A room painted a dark/bold color will look less heavy/basementy if you hang wide light colored curtains. A white room will gain a lot of drama and depth if you hang wide bold colored curtains.

It's a great trick all around, plus when you open those curtains you'll be able to see out of the whole window.

I had no idea this was a thing you were supposed to do. How have I been living my whole life with this embarrassing oversight???? To think of all the backhanded snickers I have been the subject of over my curtain height (8 inches too low!!! Oh God). I could die.

It all really depends upon the room, the furnishings and overall setting.

Sometimes, it looks SO MUCH BETTER if you do Not go high and wide... for instance, in my bedroom, going a bit wide and not quite so high was the much more appropriate option. It even felt calmer. I went a bit wider (the windows but up against a corner) - maybe 7 to 10 wider (up to the edge of the wall mounted nightstands) and then split the difference between high and that wierd low example. There is not much space in the room for moving the bed and nightstands, and this was such a more estheically pleasing way to hang the curtains. The bed is fairly low and high wide curtains prevented the use of nightstands as well as throwing the whole room off.

opps - windows butt up against....

Re: "high water" curtains - what if you have baseboard heaters near the floor? How should one get creative? I'd love to know because I worry about the curtains catching fire if they drape over them.

opps again - Aesthetically ....

I second @alainnotebook. That first room has been one of my favorites since I first saw it online. Hasn't APT shown other photos of this room before? I covet those curtains!

Totally subjective IMO. Floor to ceiling drapes in my space would feel ancient.

Yes. Yes. Yes. Case in point: my own LR curtains are too short. They were purchased as a standby; several years later they're still standing by AND they are still too short. I never, ever, feel comfortable looking at them. They are still there because I want to reupholster my sofa and chairs and repaint and buying new curtains would be a waste of money. sigh.

My front window is 156" wide. The rod I have now barely makes it across the vast stretch of window, so no going wide for us! We did however go tall, cause we had a board already in place 6" above the window for the rod to attach to. Now the challenge is eventually finding curtains that are long enough to reach the floor!

I have some tips about those wide windows.

1. Don't buy a "curtain rod," buy dowling from the hardware store. It might be sold as a closet rod. There are special double screws to hook one rod to another. They will also have wooden brackets to hold it up. Get at least 3 for your very long window. It is all unfinished. Paint or stain them to match each other and your decor. The hardware store will probably have some basic finials, or you can get creative and make some out of just about anything. Vintage doorknobs can look pretty nice and are the right size.

2. Buy regular expandable curtain rods and put together multiple sets until you get the length you want. Usually the 84-104" rods will be in three pieces. You can get quite a bit more length out of two sets. Unscrew the finial ends and you have extra "middles" to add. Be sure there is plenty of overlap because your extra-large window will have extra-heavy curtain fabric, and you don't want it to look droopy.

QUESTION: What about those of us who have a decent-sized space and high ceilings, BUT...there is molding everywhere? There are large squares around the room and some narrow rectangles near & between the windows -- AND a line around the room approx 1.5 - 2' down from the ceiling. My guess is to hang the rods from just below this molding line as the wide molding window frames almost meet the molding line near the ceiling.

I have narrow windows on either side of my bed. I wanted to-the-ceiling curtains but only covering the windows, not extending wider. (I envisioned columns of white dupioni silk, you know?) When we tried to install the brackets, it turned out that the contractors had installed some kind of metal plates at the juncture we needed to drill, presumably as part of the ceiling joist system! Rude surprise!!! (We managed the install, but I don't remember if we moved off tot he side or if we drilled into the metal...)

Not when you have plaster walls. The trim is specifically made to hang the hardware.

(Which is the case for me.)

I actually think hanging curtains way above the windows (like a foot or more - as the first drawing illustrates) usually looks ridiculous. Occasionally there are instances where it works, but in general I disagree. It doesn't make the window look bigger (like hanging wide does) but rather just looks like your curtains are too long. The trapped portion of wall between them looks incredibly awkward to my eyes. I do agree, however, that they should go to the floor.

In upcoming rental..there are wooden cornices' above the windows..so I can't hang my pole rods/ring clipped drapes...that I like. Has anyone had this problem , to me, and managed to put in flowing drapes, easily? I read that using a tension rod jammed up high and tight with the panels on them ..with a 'billowing out from under the cornice' look....I will keep these window treatments closed for privacy as it is..at all times..overlooking ground level street..and 'community porch.' thank you for any help or suggestions, VERY much..

I have a curved front living room in an old brownstone, so I am using a wire rod to get the curtains closer to the window. I was worried about attaching them to the drywall, but after putting them up on the window frame, i immediately regretted not placing them higher and wider to really frame these gorgeous windows! A project for a rainy Sunday I suppose...

Mine are mostly just above the window -- but I have 12' ceilings, which means they'd look overly formal and imposing hung just beneath that. I have pretty good window height as it is.

Ugh, I hate this for most applications. Some windows or rooms just aren't made for "high and wide." And all that space between the window and the curtain rod can be awkward. It just doesn't always work.

I do prefer that look, and that's how we always did it in our old house, but here we have coved ceilings and a picture rail running around the room. It seemed kind of random to hang the rods 3" above the window, andI feel like there might be too much going on in that area with the picture rail and the curtain rod right next to each other. Ceilings and molding like that are really common in 1920's houses around here, but I couldn't find a picture so here is one of my living room: http://www.flickr.com/photos/48219099@N02/6970970450/in/photostream

It turns out we need a special drill bit to drill into our plaster walls though, so I just attached them to the molding around the windows thinking I would figure something else out later. They've been like that ever since, and I'm still not sure how else I'd do it. I am glad that the wood around the window is wide and our curtains are lightweight, so although it doesn't make our windows look wider, the curtains can be pushed completely out of the way of the window glass to let in maximum light.

Yes, yes and yes! High & wide is the only way to hang curtains.

@Saria the Cat,
I have a window just like that and I found an Umbra rod that extends slightly past the window on each side.

Wasn't there a similar post about this a couple of months ago? It even had a similar illustration...

The last image SOLD it for me. This is just the kind of drama my windows & my room have been missing. GORGEOUS! I will be adjusting the height of my rods & purchasing longer MOD curtains ASAP. Thanks!

Personally I don't like the gap of wall that shows between when you hang them "high". Agree with others that it just looks awkward. The example pic's only show slightly higher so it's not as odd. I could see "wide" in the right situation, but these are not rules that apply to every window in every home given a curtain. Let your eye be the judge...and if you like it then do it.

I actually really hate when people do this - makes it harder to open the curtains and honestly, I think shrinks the ceiling. Leave this fad where it started - hotels.

I just can't get behind this as a hard and fast rule. We have 12 foot ceilings in every room of our home. It is an original craftsman style home, and it think it would look ridiculous to have curtains hanging twelve feet up when the tops of the woodwork around the windows is *only" 9.5 feet high. 2.5 feet of odd space floating up there inbetween curtains that sore into the sky would look silly. Having curtains that are placed just above and outside the woodwork makes our rooms feel cozier to me.
Does anyone have pictures of curtains in rooms with really high ceilings? Are they all the way up, just above the window, or part way between?

I'm anti-window gap too. Smallish gaps, okay. Big ones look silly. Spoils the effect because it reveals that you're trying to trick the eye. Then the trick stops, for me at least.

I currently use curtains only in my migraine retreat (spare bedroom). The curtains cover factory-tinted glass, inside-mounted shades, and inside-mounted blinds, all of which are used in each of my home's windows. Curtains hanging high and wide over block-out liners are more darkening and prettier than curtains hung like image 1 were. Even so, I plan to remove these final curtains. I've had hardly any migraines for years, so the work required to keep curtains clean and pretty no longer seems worthwhile. I'll just wear a sleep mask as needed.

So here's a question I haven't seen answered yet (did I miss it?) -- just how wide is wide? Is there a ratio?

Just like @ERIKAN I want to know more about those bold print curtains in the first room - anyone know anything about the fabric?

In my living room I have 3 windows plus a sliding glass door....2 smaller windows on one wall and the sliding door and a huge window on another wall. The sliding door and the big window are 10 inches apart. I am not sure at all what to do about curtains on that wall. How far beyond the side of the window and the sliding glass door do I hang the curtains? I feel like basically the wall is going to be wall-to-wall curtains & I'm just not sure how it's going to look....help! What do I do?

What to do when you have baseboard heaters below every window? Is there a curtain length that isn’t deemed a decor no? Not a lot of decor advice for this situation. Would love some advice!

@anniabroad: To the floor is not the only option. Though it is considered a more "casual" look, it is appropriate to have your curtains stop at the window sill or apron. I do this in my guest room, where the a/c vent is below the window, and I do not want to block it. An alternative would be roman shades.