Imagine walking through your local warehouse or home improvement store. You weren’t planning on it, but you turn one of those weird oversized carts around the corner of an aisle marked “Window Treatments” and find yourself immediately redecorating your entire house. Curtains and drapes are some of the easiest and most affordable ways to transform any space. In times of crisis, good people do what needs to get done and what greater crisis is there but an interior design crisis?
Curtains and drapes are an opportunity to add an extra artistic edge to any space or room with windows. There’s a wide-array of fabrics and a literal endless supply of different colors, textures, and designs out there that there’s really no way to go wrong. For every creative mind, there’s the right cloth for your window blankets.
Now there are arguably dozens of ways to hang fabric from above windows or doorways. The internet is full of numerous “How-to” videos from a bunch of nobodies that can’t be trusted. Not to fret, however, as I can walk you through a few easy steps.
Scourge Instagram accounts of designers and influencers with better taste than you and straight-up just steal their ideas. Before you even think about hanging those drapes, you have to do yourself a huge favor and make a Pinterest board. You could always build some sort of inspiration board or folder on your desktop, but why bother when someone else smarter than you has gone through all of the hard work already? Work smarter, not harder!
Even if you’ve gotten to this point and still have no idea what to do for your window treatments, there is hope for you yet. Humanity is never in short supply of help, so simply Google the problem and you are certain to find what you’re looking for. It’s really that simple.
Follow this link for more tips: https://www.bhg.com/decorating/window-treatments/basics/how-to-hang-curtains/
Everything you’ll need to hang your curtains or drapes:
- Pen, pencil, or permanent marker
- Grommet curtains (usually between 2-4 panels)
- Ruler, a really long ruler, or a tape measure
- Curtain rod or long pole
- Wall-mounting kit or brackets for curtain rod
- Ladder, step ladder, or a really tall friend
Step #1 – Measure the window or door frame for the intended curtains or drapes.
Get your tall friend or ladder to climb and measure your window from either left to right or the opposite, right to left. As long as you’re measuring the width, you’re doing it right. After you have that number, double it. That number is how wide your grommet curtains should be. Anything less would look a little funny.
You don’t want the fabric hanging over your windows to be pulled tight like a solid sheet of something or other stuck up onto the glass window itself. That would be silly. No, you want the fabric to bunch up in neat little pleats because that’s what looks nice everyone has decided.
Do you know how tall your ceilings are? Figure that out first because you’ll want to know that in general. After you find that out, figure out how tall you want your window treatments to be. Take that number and multiply it a few times for the answer.
Step #2 – Find out the width of your curtain rod and its diameter (or thickness).
If you’re ready to figure out the diameter, or thickness, you should first measure the opening of the grommets on the curtain panels you want or already have. That is the biggest diameter you can purchase for the rod or pole you need before you start cutting the fabric and getting things all out of sorts. I wouldn’t recommend that as you may destroy the curtains or drapes you’ve purchased.
You may have more ideas for drapery like valances. Window valances vary widely in style. If you’d like to know more about them, click here, otherwise we’ll move on.
Step #3 – Find out exactly how many panels you’re going to need.
Again, you want to make double sure that the panels you purchase are twice the width of the window so that the fabric can bunch and pleat all pretty like. For example, if your window is sixteen feet long, you’ll want at least thirty-two feet of panel to cover them and have them look nice. It’s also important that they’re balanced by the right number of panels.
Step #4 – Hang the curtain rod and you thread those curtains.
Use your handy-dandy measuring device and determine where the exact center point on the wall above your window or door frame is. Mark it and stand a few feet back to observe it in order to ensure it looks right. Now that’s done and you can install the mounting kit or brackets according to the manufacturer’s instructions.
If you’ve got the right tools on hand, this would be the time to use either a yardstick or a leveling device. Ideally you’d have both because they’d be perfect for this but, alas, let’s be realistic. Also, don’t trust phone applications that claim they can do either because the technology simply isn’t there yet.
Think about when you push a clean-cut end of thread through the head of a needle. That’s called threading. You’re going to do that with the grommets on your panels and treat the rod or pole like the needle and sew it through all the holes however you like. There are no rules for this part so don’t worry about it too much. Just make sure to screw the finals on the ends.
Step #5 – Arrange and enjoy!
Now all you have to do is arrange your window blankets exactly as you desire. They are your window treatments, after all, and no one can tell you what to do with them. However, if you ask me, I recommend buying a bunch of extra panels and stuffing them on that rod to give your curtains a fuller, richer look.