Installing Custom Length Curtain Rods

The north facing wall of our great room has about 14 feet of French windows and doors. We love the light during the day but wanted them covered at night (otherwise it is like looking into a fish bowl from the outside). Additionally, having thick curtains drawn at night should provide a little extra insulation during the heating and cooling season.

French doors without curtains

The challenge: Finding an attractive curtain rod that was long enough and strong enough to span the windows. As you can probably imagine it is next to impossible to find a single rod approximately 15 feet long.

The solution: Combine 2 rods to make the custom length.

It is pretty easy to find solid wood rods in 8 foot lenghts. Join them together with curtain rod connector screw and ...... Ta da. You now have a 16 foot solid rod.

16 feet was more than we needed, however.  At that lenght the rod would extend too far past the windows on each side and would look strange. The rods needed to be cut to a custom length. I took an equal six inches off each rod using a jigsaw to create 2 x 7.5 foot rods.

To join the rods, use a curtain rod connector screw like this one. You're going to want to make sure you center the screw in the middle of each rod so your joined rod is as straight as possible.  I drilled a pilot hole a little smaller in diameter than the connector screw in the center of the the newly cut rod ends.

After joining the two halves tightly there was really no noticeable seam, but what little seam was there was going to be covered up by the center support bracket.  A middle support bracket is definitely necessary at this length otherwise there will be a noticeable sag in the rods.

Curtain Rod Support Bracket Mounting Diagram

Mounting the curtain rod support brackets is the most challenging part of the project, but really it is pretty straight forward as long as you take your time and plan it out in advance.  I've outlined the approach I used to install our curtain rods below.

1. Start by determining the placement for one of your support brackets.  Keep in mind you will probably want it to be a little outside the window frame so when the curtains are open they will not block much of the light.  Second, you'll want to make sure the support bracket is mounted high enough so that your curtains are the appropriate height off the floor.  Use a level to ensure the bracket is level both horizontally and vertically.  Once you are sure of the placement, mark the screw holes with a pencil.
2. Use a level to draw a light, vertical line straight up from the edge of the window frame.
3. Draw a level horizontal line from one of the screw marks to the vertical line.
4. Measure the vertical distance from the top of the window frame to the intersection of the horizontal line.  Then, measure the horizontal distance from the intersection of your vertical line to the screw marker.
5. You now have the measurements to mount a symmetrical support bracket on the other side of the window.  Start by drawing your vertical line and mark the vertical measurement on the line.  Measure the horizontal distance from your vertical line and mark the place for one of your mounting screws.

With the location of your brackets marked, install the hardware, put your curtains on the custom length rod and put them up!

French doors with custom-length curtain rods installed