Curtains are an essential part of your décor that will finish off your room by adding a touch of elegance, tying your room together. 

Regardless of whether you have ready-made curtains or made-to-measure curtains, hanging them can seem a bit daunting; In reality, hanging ready-made curtains and made-to-measure curtains couldn’t be easier! 

The devil is in the detail – or in this case, the measurements. Once you get your measurements correct, you can’t go wrong when hanging your curtains.

Before You Hang Your Curtains: Plan & Measure!

This may seem a bit of a tedious step, but if you get this right, you can’t go wrong when you hang your ready-made or made-to-measure curtains. There are four basic measurements that you need to plan for:

Width

Measure your window from side to side horizontally. Once you have this measurement, add on 4 to 6 inches to choose your curtain rod. Go for the longer measurement if you want your curtains to drape a little more and the shorter if you want your curtains with less material.

When your curtains are open, they shouldn’t be covering your windows too much, as this will block the natural light in your room. 

Curtain Rail Height

You’ll need to decide how high you want your curtain pole to sit. A higher curtain pole tends to give a little more of a high-end luxe feel — boutique hotels hang their curtains like this — the extra material adds that luxurious dimension to the space. This is all about personal taste and whether you have mouldings or coving, as well as how high your ceilings are.

Panel Width

Decide how wide you want your panels to be – as a rule of thumb, you should have each panel come to around 1.5–2 times the size of the full window frame.

Having your panels wider than your window means that your curtains will sit and gather well when they’re open. However, if you don’t want too much material and prefer a lighter look, measure each width slightly shorter than the standard recommendation.

Again, this is all about personal taste; your ready-made or made-to-measure curtains are something that is supposed to suit your taste and décor – this is your space.

Curtain Rail To Floor Measurement

Last but not least, and possibly the most important measurement – the curtain drop. Once you’ve decided where you want to hang your curtain rod, you then need to measure the curtain drop that you want.

If you want your curtains to sit just below your windowsill, measure from rod to windowsill and then add around 5 inches on just to be on the safe side. If you want your curtains to reach from curtain rod to floor, do the same but measure to the floor.

Once you’re all measured up, and you’ve planned how your curtains will look, it’s time to hang them!

Image source: barnebygates.com

How To Hang Your Curtains

Get yourself a curtain hanging toolkit together – you will need:

• A pencil
• Your curtain rod and brackets
• Wall plugs (if drilling the brackets into plaster)
• Spirit level
• Screwdriver or drill – a drill tends to make lighter work of it!
• Your curtains
• Tape measure

Step one: If you haven’t already, take all your window measurements and note them down.

Step two: Hang your brackets using wall plugs if you are drilling into plaster. 

Step three: Add the rod and then hang your second bracket – make sure that you use a spirit level at this point to ensure that you don’t have wonky curtains! 

Handy hint – if your curtain rod is longer than 4ft long, add a centre bracket so that your rod doesn’t dip in the middle.

Step four: Add your curtains to the rod and play around with how you want to drape your curtains; you can pull them straight back, or you can widen your pleats for a more draped look.

Image source: designersguild.com

Extra Tips 

• If you can’t use a drill and screws, you can use command hooks to attach your curtain pole to the wall – they’re a renter-friendly option for your ready-made curtains or made-to-measure curtains!
• To install tie-backs or hooks, measure halfway up your curtain panels and a couple of inches in from the frame.
• No good with sewing? You can hem your ready-made curtains or made-to-measure curtains whilst they are hanging – simply use wonder web, bring the ironing board over the curtain, and press with the iron. Simple!

Now you know how to hang your curtains, it’s time to choose your favourite style! Take a look at our huge range of made-to-measure curtains to finish off your space, and to compliment your curtains browse our eclectic range of modern roman blinds, wooden and roller blinds.