The eeeeeasiest curtain rods (that are elegant and affordable, too!)

The eeeeeasiest curtain rods (that are elegant and affordable, too!)

• 2.03.2017

Are you a curtain person or a blinds person? Or a blinds-with-curtains-on-top person? I have always been a curtains-only person, but in the new house, we have some huge windows and some closer neighbors--so I've opted for both!

Getting blinds and curtains up was essential to making our house feel livable. I put curtains up as soon as I could! I ordered all one type of curtain rod, a black "room-darkening" model, and they were SO easy to install and so affordable, and they look and function so well, I just have to share!

When you start looking for details in designs you like, you start to notice patterns. Most of the rooms I've been inspired by, when they have curtains, have black curtain rods with small or no end finials. I found this modern curtain rod that had the simple lines I was looking for, but it was out of our budget. Other than that I really couldn't find traditional curtain rods I liked online!

Until I stumbled upon this one. It's marketed as a "room-darkening" style, and while that's a quality I appreciate in our bedroom for maximizing sleep quality, it wasn't what I thought I was looking for. But turns out the finial-less curtain rod look is modern and sleek, and provides extra privacy and ease of use (no rods sliding around in the brackets).

Here are some of my inspirations, plus what I ended up with!

Source 1/source 2/source 3

I seriously ordered 8 of these and used them on most of our windows, even though I don't have all of the rooms designed yet. For about $20 each, I figured I would like them enough for a while and if I want to change later, no problem. But what I didn't realize was that they would be SO easy and look SO good!

Here's why they are so great. What are the worst things about installing curtain rods?

1. Getting both screw holes on all three brackets marked and level
2. Using drywall screws for all six holes--you know they will pull out after a couple years of use and you will be left with large holes in your drywall and you'll have to buy bigger drywall screws and bigger screws and keep messing with them forever.
1. Or you have to install the curtain rods on studs which limits you to right on the edge of the window (so the curtains when open will still block light) or 12-18" outside (will the curtain rod be long enough for that??)

These curtain rods eliminate both of those problems. First, each bracket only has one hole. All you have to do is measure equidistant from the ceiling in two locations, then hang the rod and mark the holes for the center bracket. SO. EASY.

Two, we have low-ish ceilings and installed all of the rods right at the ceiling line, which you can do on these because you pull the rod straight out rather than up and there's no finial to bump the ceiling as you pull up! So, we were able to install the brackets right at the ceiling joist so no matter where we installed them (distance out from the window), we drilled right through to wood. No more drywall screw disasters! Such a good feeling!!

I think they're best when hung with curtain clips (I ordered a couple packs of these to match), but my curtain-hanging has been pretty haphazard so far and I hung these through the tabs since they were about the right length. Soon I'll get the sewing machine set up and hem them shorter so I can use clips here, too.

I also installed two of them touching each other over the large family room window which is very close to the sliding glass door. It's always a bit of a head scratcher on what to put over sliding doors, right? We removed some ancient, filthy, broken vertical blinds on our slider when we moved in so I was not interested in replacing them with more blinds any time soon! Installing two of these rods and matching white IKEA curtains next to each other almost makes it look like we have a wall of windows.

(Forgive that disgusting fence in the background--this is a fixer upper, after all.)

Before we hung these I was dreading hanging 8 curtain rods and figuring out heights and leveling and blah, blah, blah. But these curtain rods (plus my blanket decision to hang all of them at the ceiling height, spaced out so that the curtains when open don't block the windows) made it so fast and easy. Also, don't the curtain rings look classy on these rods??

If you need to upgrade your window treatment situation and want an easy, modern, affordable solution, I highly recommend checking these out! Shop the exact rod and rings I bought here!