There are still a TON of things that need to happen with this room (namely wall decor) but I need to address one mistake that most people make when it comes to their draperies. Often I walk into a house and see that people have hung their curtains just inches above the top of the window. Doing this automatically lowers your line of sight and cuts the room in half. There is such a thing as hanging draperies too high but I would rather have someone err on the side of too high than too low. Also if you've ever priced out 120"+ curtains you know how expensive they can be. For these curtains, I just bought 4 drapery panels (white from Ikea and teal from Target) and sewed them together. I used the bottom of the teal curtains and the full length of the IKEA ones. Literally, all I had to do was sew a straight line. ANYONE can do that. To make it a little more interesting I added that strip in the middle from the teal curtains - so I guess you could say I had to sew 4 straight lines. I think the total price for both panels was right around $85.

I actually think the curtains in the AFTER shot are hung too high.  I probably would have lowered them about 4" from the ceiling - but as I said before, I'd rather curtains be too high than too low.

Another aesthetic component with draperies is piling.  The "pile" of the curtains basically means how much of the drapery hits the floor. This is a personal preference. In my case I prefer a modest amount to bunch on the floor (as seen in the picture of my curtains at the top). Some people prefer no piling while others, massive amounts. The ONE THING you're not allowed to do is leave the curtain too short.  THE CURTAINS MUST at least TOUCH THE FLOOR!