Lipstick, Lace & Coffee: How To Hang a Curtain Without A Rod

I love to have curtains in my windows. It can pull an entire room together.

I have a lot of windows in my house that need curtains. And I'm cheap, so I don't want to spend a fortune on covering them. I had these sheer curtains on hand, but no rod; and a big window that needed to be "covered".

I had done something very similar in Ella's room, so I decided to do it again in our living room.

So here's how to hang curtains without a rod.

Here's what you need.

Wood Knobs

Wood Screws (more on this)

Paint (your color choice)

Drill and Drill Bits

Tape Measure

Ruler and Pencil

The knobs come with a standard screw. The problem is that you can't get them directly into the wall with a flat head screw. So, I hunted these down. These are wood screws made specifically for knobs. Notice there is no head to the screw. You drill it into the wall and then screw your knob on. Make sure you find the right size screw for the knob, too big or too small and this will not work.

Paint your knobs.

*You can buy any knobs you'd like and this will work*

This is how I held them to be painted. Pretty helpful…and paint didn't get ALL over my hands.

Next you'll need to measure…and I had to measure like 100 times before I got it just right.

Make sure you're spacing is even.

{Do you love my ruler?}

Use a drill bit to pre drill holes into wall.

Choose a bit that is a bit smaller than your screw.

If you choose one that is bigger the screw will not be secure in the hole.

Now it's time to drill your screw into the wall.

This is how the screw should fit into your drill.

At the corners and the middle of your window you will hit a stud. Put a little elbow grease in there when you are pre drilling with your bit. You want to make sure the screw will stay in there!

{Don't judge the paint job!}

These are my knobs…all lined up. This is my "rod".

{Don't mind the lighting…photography is hard!}

Next I'm going to get "tisked" by the women who can sew.

I don't know how to use my sewing machine yet; so I improvised.

(I'm not super attached to these curtains. I just had them laying around.

So I don't mind some minor mutilation)

I measured and cut tiny holes in curtains where they fabric will hang on the knobs.

The hole is just big enough for the back part of the knob to fit through.

*tisk tisk*

I know, I know.

Now hang!

I overlapped the curtains on the center 3 knobs only because I measured wrong (surprise surprise). But I didn't hate the way it looked. So I left it alone.

I even used knobs for my tie backs.

Cost breakdown:

Knobs: $1.50 each

I bought 9…that's $13.50 for the knobs

Screws: $3 for 12 screws

Paint: On hand…so free for me : )

That's a grand total of $16.50.

The rods I was looking at were $25 and tie backs are about $12 for a pack of two.

That's about $37.

So there's a pretty good savings there. And you could use ANY knobs for this project. So if you have some thrifted ones, you could do this for the cost of the screws! Not bad.

Here's the one I made for Ella's room.

It has a wood board behind it. But it's another way to hang the knobs.