If you live in an older home, you might have a curtain rod conundrum. You may have plaster walls that crumble easily and don’t take kindly to being drilled or nailed. Or maybe you live in an apartment and your landlord strictly forbids drilling holes in the wall. Either way, you might be puzzling over how hang window treatments without drilling.
Good news – you don’t have to go without curtains forever. There are a number of options for hanging curtain rods without using nails or screws or creating wall holes.
Special Hardware for No-Drill Curtain Rod Brackets
Clever brackets exist that allow you to mount a curtain rod directly to the corners of the wood molding around your window, instead of in the wall.
Instant Curtain Rod Holders wrap around the top corners of your window molding. A small V-shaped piece slides behind the molding to secure the holder in place. Any standard adjustable curtain rod will fit right onto the curtain rod holder. There is a screw hole on the top and side of the holder in case you’d prefer to attach them more permanently. Instant Curtain Rod Holders come in a set for eight for around $9 from Amazon.com.
Ready Hang brackets, on the other hand, allow for more creative possibilities because the height at which you hang your curtain rod is adjustable. They’re great for taking advantage of a high ceiling.
The durable steel brackets are placed on the upper corners of your window molding, and a screw is tightened with an Allen wrench. Vertical extension rods slide up and down, allowing you to hang your curtain rod several inches above the top of your window.
They’re also the only window corner bracket we know of that actually comes with the coordinating curtain rod.
Here at the Money Pit, we’ve tried the Ready Hang brackets-and-rod kit, and it works like a charm – easy installation, and a high-end look.
Ready Hang brackets and curtain rods come in four varieties, with different finishes and decorative finials, and sell for $39.99 – $49.99 each.
Ceiling Solutions
If you can get away with putting holes in your ceiling, you might opt for one of the many ceiling-mounted curtain rod brackets out there. You can get them from Country Curtains and Swags Galore. If you’re dealing with a wide wall of windows, you might opt to hang a ceiling curtain track instead.
Bracketless Solution
You could also skip the brackets altogether. Try using a tension rod instead. Tension rods easily adjust to the width of your window and sit snugly between the two side jambs of the window – no hardware required. You can position them anywhere in the window you want to, which means you can get creative with curtain combinations, valances and cafe panels.
And if you’re remembering your grandmother’s ugly white tension rods, never fear. Today, you can get tension rods in decorative finishes, like black and brushed chrome.