Draperies and Top Treatments - How far can I extend the rod for living room window?

I've finally decided to put a curtain rod in our living room window. The window is 105 in x 54 in. I realize I need to put together two 6' rods to get a wooden pole long enough to meet the length. How far off the sides can I extend the rod? Can I get away with a 12ft rod for this window? or would that look tacky and odd?

Also, the distance between the ceiling and the top of the window frame is 10 1/2 inches. Can I raise the curtain rod all the way up to the top, just below the ceiling? How many brackets are recommended for long rods?

Lastly, given the dimensions of the window, what would be the appropriate type of curtain length to use? 63" or 84" ? There is a couch in front of the window. The room height os 8'.

Thanks!

yes, you can extend the rod out beyond the width of the window as much as you want - if you want all the stackback to be in front of the wall, exposing as much of the window glass as possible, that's fine. and that will make your window seem even bigger than it is. the window is 8'9". can you get away with a 12' rod? yeah, i'd say so! you'll have finials of some sort on the ends of the pole, too, so that'll add a few inches, too. you'll have about 18" on each side for your stackback. you want a little bit of the drapery to fall over the inside edge of the window to soften it.

i think one center support should be plenty, and it should hide your splice.

you can also mount the rod at any height you want. just above the window or as high as you can go. but if you want to use readymade drapery, mount the rod wherever it needs to go in order for the fabric to come to within 1" of the floor (for floor length draperies). you don't want high-water drapes (and the couch probably won't completely hide too-short ones)! 63" drapes will be too short, and 84" are meant to be hung just above windows like yours. if you want to mount your rod at ceiling height, you'll need to get 96" ones and probably hem them slightly.

if you're just wanting the drapery to come to just below the window sill, the 63" drapery will be fine, but be sure to install the rod in the right spot (not all the way to the ceiling, but down a few inches), so the fabric covers the window apron, or at least comes down to almost touching the sill (depending on where your sofa hits the window).

Annette, Just want to thank you for the great advice. This gives me a little more confidence in taking on this challenge of putting draperies in the living room. I just got my curtains in the mail yesterday, and I'll be picking up the rods and brackets at Target tomorrow.

I'm so excited in doing this! :o Thank you so much for your tips. I truly do appreciate it! I'm so glad I found this site.

-Geri

please let us know how it turns out! :thumbup: :)

Well, I finally got the curtain rods up! I didn't go 144 inches as originally planned. The walls on the side just didn't allow for that. So, I cut the rods and made it into 128 inches total with a 2.5in finnials at the ends.

It worked out great!

A "REAL" curtain rod really adds something to a room, as opposed to the ones I used to get. I got my whole project done for only $30.00 ( 2x 6ft rods, finnials, 3 brackets.) LNT has a clearance sale going on right now, so I bought the $30.00 worth of stuff and painted them to suit the colors of our living room. Even my 3 year old son had fun painting the rod (I had one side hanging on the ceiling and put a brown grocery paper bag underneath to catch the drips.) After all is said and done, You wouldn't believe they came from 3 mismatched pieces!

Well, hubby will be home soon, and he'll be in for a surprise. I hope he likes it as much as I do. Thanks again!

Geri :)

congratulations! glad it worked out for you!

did you end up mounting it at ceiling height? what kind of draperies did you use? and did you go floor length or shorter??

:D

I mounted it 3 inches away from the ceiling. It was just the right height for either the 63 in. or 84 in. length curtains. At 63, it just covered the bottom of the window frame. At 84 in., it falls right down before the heat baseboards.

It took me the whole day to put it in (got 2 toddlers at home :D ). I found myself looking at the window from a distance many times. Measuring and calculating many times for all possibilities, and going online to research future curtain purchases, and browsing at pictures, etc.

The curtains I used for now is made of linen, in canvas color, tab top panels. I've owned these for 10 years now and never used them. Just took them out of the package.

I originally purchased 3 nice green floral curtains, but didn't take into account that the rod I have is too thick for it. My rods are 1 3/8" thick, and the green curtains only accommodates 1 inch flat rods. (I'll use those green ones in my daughter's room. It'll make a good accent.) So, now, I'm on the hunt for other tab top curtains with a thicker fabric to get ready for the fall and winter season.

I can sew, too. But I wouldn't know what to do with those tab tops. Any tips? Or should I start a new thread for this topic ? :rolleyes:


Thanks again, Annette!

BTW, hubby loves it!

-Gheri

again, good job! :thumbup: (10 years old, huh? wow!)

and yes, please start a new thread & the Sewing forum on how to make tab tops. good luck with that, too!