A Nice, Strong Rod: DIY Curtain Hanging

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Yesterday I rattled on about buying and cleaning vintage curtains. After my curtains were all nice and clean I needed to hang them up! But, as you all saw (and Emma pointed out) the curtain rods in our living room were dunzo. They were bent and gross. Plus they only went the length of the window.

Curtain rods, especially for 8 foot curtain rods like I need, are expensive and I am cheap. I took myself over to Amazon where I found this nickel rod for $28, this one for $50, and this one on sale for the relatively inexpensive price of $20. Which isn't bad, but...

Back in the day I moved into my first solo place and didn't have money for fancy curtain rods, but had lots of windows. I got the idea to use rigid copper plumbing pipe. It was inexpensive and looked awesome. The price of copper skyrocketed in the intervening years, so it's not longer as affordable an option

Instead I went to the local big box and bought a ten foot length of electrical conduit. For two bucks. That's right. $2. The lumber department cut it down to eight feet at no charge (and I got to keep the extra two feet. We all know a project will be coming forthwith with the spare length). (See how bent the old, black rod was?) (How many parenthesis can I use in one paragraph?!)

I decided to go with the silver-y metal tones. We have lots of coppery and oil rubbed bronze going on in our house, but I do love chrome-y things. Everyone likes a little mixed metal action, right? But you could totally spray paint the rod ORB (or whatever) and get finials and curtain rings to match.

Of course, every curtain rod needs finials. Over to the cabinet hardware section I went. After some digging I found vintage-y chrome knobs for $1.06 each.

So for a grand total of $4.06 I had everything I needed to DIY a drapery rod.

I wrapped the end of the knob with a little thread tape (if you don't have any thread tape, it's about a dollar) and just inserted one knob into the end of the rod (I'm really fighting the urge to crack some insanely dirty jokes here).

[Note from J: Use thread tape because it's slightly rubberized and gives it better grip. It's the best alternative to soldering.] 

Next I put my curtain rings on the rod, and did the same tape wrap-py, insert-y deal on the other end.

Now for hanging the drapes. Although I decided against going high with these drapes I did want to go wide. The window isn't really centered on the wall. This led to confusion with the credenza. Should I center it to the wall or to the window? With a curtain rod that almost covers the entire width of the wall and with three drapery panels I can cheat the window so it appears centered and my furniture will look more balanced.

Also, hint? Take the clips off the rings. Put the rings on the rod and clip the clips to the curtain, the reattach clips to ring. Much easier.

I don't know if its the time of day or what, but I could not get a good picture of the curtains.

Close up of the "finial."

Close-up of the rod, ring. pleat situation.

Lessons learned? I should have starched the drapes when I ironed them. Two of them look okay, but the left most curtain already looks wrinkly. Sigh.

They do make the whole room look lighter and happier. I also could definitely close the curtains and they would completely cover the window. I think that's key for a good window treatment, because it gives it a certain richness. Plus, practical!

So, the total cost for the window treatments? $5 drapes, $4.06 rod, $4 clearance curtain clips.

A grand total of $13.06 for the whole shebang. Yeah, baby.

Have you guys ever used untraditional materials to make a curtain rod?

Linked up at The DIY Club.