I'm having a tough time figuring out how to hang window treatments in my living room so I was hoping to get some advice from my very helpful readers.

There are only two windows in the living room/dining room (we only have four windows in the entire condo) and right smack in the middle of them is our heating/cooling unit. Normally I'm a "hang 'em high and wide" type of person but that heating unit is providing some challenges.

I can't hang them wide at all. As a matter of fact the curtains would have to be hung pretty close to the window frame so that I don't obstruct the heating unit. The windows are pretty large so I'm not too concerned that I will crowd the windows and make them look smaller, I'm more concerned that I'll be blocking too much light. The drawing above demonstrates two panels on each window and I think it looks okay but light is a precious resources in this condo so I'm trying to come up with other options.

One idea I came up with is to hang the
Dignitet curtain wire system from Ikea and have it span both windows. Basically I would be treating the entire area as one set of windows and would hang one panel at each end. This way I don't have to worry about heating unit and I can hang the curtain panels as wide set as I'd like. Do you think the wire spanning the wall between the two windows looks odd?
If it does seem a little odd, the other option would be to deal with each window separately and hang rods over each. I would still only hang one panel on each window so I can allow light in but now the question is does a rod with only one curtain panel on it look odd? Have any of you had to deal with a similar situation? If so, what did you decide was the best option? If you have any pictures I would love to see them.
Thanks a bunch!
-Michelle