8 Clever Ideas for Hanging Curtains
Here are eight ideas to give you a place to start. As you begin searching around your home, you may well find more options that suit your personal style even better.
Coat Hooks
Metal coat hooks made of brass or another metal can be attached above your window to hold curtain panels. Attach curtain rings or fabric ties to the top of the curtains and loop them over the hooks. For a finishing touch, consider attaching decorative touches such as bows or silk flowers to the hooks. A variation of this method is to use a pair of coat hooks, one on each side of the window, as support brackets to hold the ends of a standard curtain rod.
Glass or Brass Door Knobs
Scour antique shops or thrift stores for old vintage doorknobs with escutcheon plates (it doesn’t matter if they are mismatched). There are several ways to use vintage doorknobs with window treatments:
Attach several doorknobs to the wall above the window in a line, then tie the curtains to the knobs using fabric ties.Insert doorknobs into the ends of ordinary curtain rods to use as decorative finials, then hang the rod on standard curtain brackets.Placed alongside the window midway down the wall, doorknobs can also make great ornamental tieback anchors.
Door knobs can also make a good coat rack. Just attach the knobs to a well-finished hardwood board to serve as the base, then anchor the coat rack to the wall near an entry door. Remember that coat racks carry quite a bit of weight, so they must be firmly attached to the wall using secure wall anchors.
Spoons
Bent spoons or other flatware bought at a yard sale can make terrific curtain hardware. Use pliers to bend the utensils in the shape of a hook, and you’ve created great hardware for kitchen curtains. You can attach a makeshift hook above the window on each side to support a curtain rod. Or, attach a row of bent spoons above the window, then use curtain ties to secure the curtain to the hooks. Additional spoon hooks can be attached midway down the window’s side casings to serve as tieback hooks. When securing spoon hooks to the wall, you’ll need to drill a couple of holes in each handle, then drive screws through the holes and into the wall.
Cup Hooks
You can use plain cup hooks painted a bright color as attractive window hardware. Simply attach curtain rings or fabric ties to the curtains and slip them over the cup hooks. They look great and they are very inexpensive. With this method, you can attach a row of cup hooks to the wall or to the top window case molding, then use cloth ties to secure the curtain to the hooks.
Belts
For a western-themed room, try using western hand-tooled belts from a thrift store. Cut them to the same length and loop them through the curtain tabs and over a curtain rod. Or even better, hang the belts from horseshoes attached to the molding above the window.
Clothespins
Old-fashioned wooden spring clothespins can work well with lightweight curtains. Use the clothespins to simply clip the top of the curtain to a thin rod or cord suspended above the window. You can either paint the pins with colorful acrylic paints or leave the wood unfinished and natural.
Wire
Tabbed curtains can be hung with thin picture wire anchored to eye screws attached to the wall or case molding on each side of the windows. Thread the wire through the tabs, then through the eye screws. Tighten up the wire as you would on the back of a picture frame, by tightening the eye screw. The same method can work a decorative wired ribbon, which is a bit thicker but more attractive.
Drawer Pulls
If you’ve come across a collection of single-knob drawer pulls, you can put them to good use as curtain hardware. Just attach them in a row above the window, then tie curtains to the knobs with fabric ties. This is a great idea for your kitchen. Match the style of your cabinet hardware for a unified look. Attaching drawer pulls to the wall may require the use of small toggle bolts. Drill a line of evenly spaced holes in the wall above the window, insert spring-loaded toggle bolts sized to match the threaded socket on the drawer pulls, then screw the drawer pulls onto the toggle bolts.
