Make It Nice: Curtains, Linens, And How To Figure Out What You Like

Welcome back to Make It Nice, Defector's best interior design advice column. Today, we have a curtain dilemma, replacements for “ratty” linens, and advice on how to figure out what you like.

Aileen asks:

My husband and I just upgraded our apartment here in Germany to one with much more space. The downsides of this is we have hard marble floors and a tall-ceilinged living room (oh woe is us!). It's very echo-y and looks directly into our neighbors across the street. 

The windows have external shutters, so light-blocking isn't needed, but we'd love to get some sort of curtain deal going here. We don't want anything too dark (it gets dark enough here in the winter, that photo was taken at 4:30 pm), but it would be good to have something to absorb some of the echo.

We are pretty sure we can find something in a color and fabric we agree on, but we keep debating the length. Floor length to add more fabric and more sound damping? Just to the windowsill so that the radiators under the window are more effective? How do curtains work? Why are they so hard for two adults to figure out?

(Also ignore the undersized dining room table, there are already plans for that to be replaced with something that fits the space better.)