Hi and welcome to another Sunny Side Design tutorial! Joining us from our No SEW Hemming tutorial? Thanks for spending more time with us! We LOVE sharing our ideas and projects with our friends.
Have you ever found yourself in a similar predicament? You’re styling a room and want to dress the windows up with some draperies…only to realize you CAN’T find a curtain rod that will hang inside your bay window? Super frustrating right?!! We’ve been there! There was once a company that made custom rods to fit bay windows, but they no longer offer this service, and as far we know (or at least as much as we researched) it’s impossible to find a rod to fit in a bay window! That of course wasn’t going to stop us from figuring out a way to make it work! Come take a look and see how we created our own DIY custom rod to fit inside a bay!
For this bay window I purchased 2 curtain rods, one for the large window and the other to be used over the 2 smaller windows. You’ll want to begin by hanging the rod over the large window first. Once the rod is secured into place you can measure how long the rods need to be for the smaller windows.
To see ALL the highlights from this master bedroom makeover on a budget click any link below.
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Once measured, mark the rod with a sharpie.
PRO TIP: Use a piece of masking tape to mark where the pipe will be cut. Similar to using a ruler to cut a straight edge with an X-Acto knife, this will give you a visual guideline to follow as you make the cut.
How To Use a Pipe Cutter:
- Place the pipe cutter along the marked edge.
- Tighten the cutter so it’s snug on the pipe. ( Be careful not to make it too tight or it can force the cutter off of the mark.)
- Holding the rod with one hand, use the other to spin the pipe cutter around the pipe multiple times. Once it feels like it’s spining a little easier, tighten the cutter and continue to spin around the pipe.
- Continue to spin and tighten until the pipe has been cut through.
I know this is the moment you’ve all been waiting for! You may be asking “Okay so they’ve hung the middle rod, and cut the 2 smaller rods for the other windows, but how in the world are they going to join the 3 rods together?” We used a 3/4″ 45° elbow joint from the local hardware store to connect the rods together. The elbow came in silver so we simply added a coat of spray paint to match the curtain rod.
Since the elbow is meant to screw onto adjoining electrical conduit and our curtain rod isn’t threaded like those would be, we needed something to create some “grip” for the elbow to fit onto. We used black electrical tape to wrap the end of the large rod, to create this “grip”.
Once the electrical tape has been placed on both ends of the large rod you can twist the elbow into place. Use as much electrical tape as needed to make the fitting tight. You’ll essentially be tightening the elbow into place as though the rod was threaded. Hang the curtain rods onto the brackets, secure the ends with finials and you’re done! You can now finally enjoy your new window treatments (and brag to your friends how you did this and how proud you are of yourself…well, maybe…that’s how I tend to get when I’m proud of being innovative and seeing the finished project after mentally visualizing how I want it to turn out. 😉)
These specific curtains hang on the rod from grommets. When they are hanging you can’t even see how the rods are hooked together. My parents have also used this DIY bay window curtain hack in their home. (I should give credit where credit is due! My Dad is the brilliant one who thought to use electrical tape to secure the elbows into place.) They’re curtains don’t have grommets like mine, instead they hang from curtain rings. Here’s a picture to see how theirs look.
Thanks for stopping by! We hope we were able to inspire you to dive into a project of your own! If you give this Bay Window Curtain Hack a try, let us know how it goes, we’d love to hear from you!
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As always here at Sunny Side Design
WE HOPE TO BRING YOUR HOME TO THE SUNNY SIDE OF THE STREET!
If you missed our tutorial on NO Sew Hemming, you’ll wanna go take a look. It’s SO simple and quick and the whole hemming process is done without any sewing! (This might put a little song in your heart if you don’t know how to sew, or you don’t have access to a sewing machine.)
If you’re looking for even more DIY curtain ideas you may want to check these other posts out.
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The use of 3/4 ″ elbow is truly remarkable. It helps to stick a lot tighter. Thanks dear.
You are welcome Marlyn. We are do happy this was helpful for you.
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Hi, Katie. I love this idea, and it seems pretty simple and straightforward. I want to do the same thing with the bay window in our living room. This will be my first DIY project; so I m very nervous. In your post you say that you used a half inch coupling with locking screws to secure the two pieces together. Did this require drilling holes? I ve looked at pictures of the coupling, but I m unsure about the screws and how that would work. Thanks so much for posting this!
Thanks for you inquiry Lady. This is really quite a simple DIY. We did NOT use screws to hold the joints together. We used a 3/4″ elbow joint and to secure it we wrapped electrical tape around the end of the curtain rod a few time. This made the pipe a little thicker so when the elbow was twisted on it gripped to the tape. We have used this method now for 5 years and it has stayed put. No need for drilling or screws.
I have been debating doing this instead of ordering a pre made one. You made it look and sound so easy. Our window is similar but I am going to have to use ceiling brackets because our windows go to the ceiling and touch so no wall to work with.
That’s great, we are glad to see you are going to give this a try. Please let us know how it turns out, we would love to know.
Thanks for the detailed instructions! They make the project seem very doable. My challenge is that my windows go right to the top of the soffit. Any ideas on how to mount the rod to the underside of the bay window soffit?
Thanks for your comment and question. Yes, it really is pretty simple to do! We’d love to help brainstorm a solution for your bay window. Can you send a picture to our email so we can get a better visual of your space? 2thesunnyside@gmail.com