Hang Curtains So The Window Looks Bigger, step by step

When it comes to hanging curtains we are not shy about encouraging people to hang them high and wide to visually enlarge the window and add height and drama to any space. Simply as influential as paint on the walls, nothing makes a room look more wrapped up than a few floor to ceiling curtain panels. And we are here to break down a few fast and straightforward curtain-hanging steps for your convenience. Of course there is more than one way to skin a cat (that expression is gross, sorry) so here is a method that works for us (although there are about a million other approaches out there).

Here is our go-to eight year old’s window sans curtains. You can see how harsh the rectangular frame of the window is, and how naked the whole wall looks. Nothin’ some Ikea curtains cannot fix.

The first step is to determine how high and wide you can go. In this case (where the ceilings are 9 feet tall) we did not go all the way to the ceiling (as we do with our 8 foot ones) but we did decide to place the curtains 12″ higher than the top of the window, and 12″ wider on each side. A good way to check that the curtain rod can extend far sufficient (which is certainly something to figure out before installing the rod hooks) is to lay it on the floor in front of the window and measure your targeted width (in this case adding 12 inches to either side of the window) to ensure that the rod is long sufficient.

Once we determined that the rod was long sufficient, we simply used a level to measure 12″ higher than the window frame and another 12″ to the right of the window (and to the left on the other side). Marking the spot with a small penciled “x” was all it took. Then we predrilled a small hole for a plastic anchor, hammered it into place, and drilled the screw right into the anchor to secure the rod hook. No sweat.

In this case we also hung a hook in the middle of the rod for brought in support (to counteract the dreaded “sagging rod”) which was easily brought in by measuring 12″ above the center of the window and again using a plastic anchor and a screw to keep the rod hook securely in place.

Here is the wrapped up product: billowy floor length curtains that can be easily hemmed to simply skim the floor (although Princess Olivia loves the pooled look so much that she prefers them as is). Of course colored and even patterned curtains would add even more punch to this space, but Olivia’s minimalist mommy adores the white on white look. And it is in fact a large trend to hang curtains that closely match the hue of the wall for a seamless and uninterrupted look that draws your eye right out the window. Mission accomplished.

And while many people fear the space between the top of the rod and the window, you can easily see here that it looks perfectly balanced (in fact, we think the window looks choked and crowded when the rod is mounted right on top of the window frame). And you can consistently cheat things even more by adding some bamboo shades like we did in our living room to hide the 15″ gap above ours. Oh window treatments: how did people ever live without you?!

We hope our lil’ curtain walkthrough has been helpful and empowering. John was not even around when I hung the curtains above (his sister Emily and I grabbed the drill and went to town). So if you have a ruler, a level, and a drill you can get ‘er done in about a half hour for a totally polished result. And of course we’d enjoy any and all curtain hanging pointers that you folks have picked up over the years. Dish the curtain hanging dirt…