How To Hang Your Curtains Properly To Make Your Windows Appear Larger

This post is about something I learned just recently as we re-decorated our living room, and it has made such a difference. I’m going to talk about how to hang your curtains properly to make your windows appear larger. As you can see from my pictures, it really does work!

How High Should You Hang Your Curtain Rod?

As you can see in my pictures, this was my biggest mistake on my last set of curtains. I purchased stock 84 inch curtains and let them dictate how high my curtain rod needed to be in order for the panels to skim the floor. This forced me to place the rods just on top of my window casings. My curtains were the perfect length but it never looked or felt quite right.

This time around I’m a little older and wiser. I have been paying more attention to the beautiful Instagram squares on my feed. I did a little research beforehand as well, and found out that if you want your windows to appear larger, you should actually hang your curtain rod higher than your trim. A good rule of thumb on a standard height ceiling like mine is to hang your rod two-thirds of the way up between the ceiling and the window trim. You want it closer to the ceiling than the window. For mine, I had 18 inches from the ceiling to the window trim, so I measured down six inches from the ceiling to find my placement. There are other theories out there that say half way between the window trim and ceiling as well.

How Wide Should Your Curtain Rod Be?

This, I also got wrong the first time around as you can clearly see.

After again doing some research I found that your curtain rods should extend around 6 inches beyond your window casings. In fact, they should extend 6-10 inches beyond the wood trim if we are being exact. This will make your window appear wider as you can see in my pictures. Also, don’t forget to take your finials into account. They do make a difference in the width of your curtain rods. When using both of these tricks (curtain rod height and width) together like I did, you too can make all of your windows appear big and airy just like all of those you see on Instagram and other home decor sites.

My Rods and Curtains

When looking for new curtain rods I was lucky to find these adjustable width curtain rods at Tablecloths Factory online. They turned out to be really good quality and a very good price. I happened to need four for my living room, so I got to take advantage of the discounted price 4-pack as well! Roughly $18 a rod is a steal, and I also do love that all hardware is included. The best feature is that you can play with your width by simply extending them out little by little until you find your perfect length and then you simply lock them in place with the twist of a tiny screw on the mounting hardware. I highly recommend them!

Now for my curtains! I love these textured weave light filtering curtains from Target. They were a great price and frequently go on sale.

I ordered them in the color Cream and love the linen look that they have. I did also get them in 95 inches to accommodate the new height of my curtain rods. These are considered light filtering not light blocking, therefore some sunlight filters through. They are great quality for the price but I do have to admit that I saw reviews stating some people had trouble with the length not matching when they ordered multiple panels. I did not have that issue and I bought eight panels for my room. They also commented in reviews that once they washed them they had a lot of shrinkage so keep that in mind if you are considering them. I have not washed mine, so I can not speak on that one. For me though, they were exactly what I was looking for!

I hope this post helps, and as always, thanks for stoppimg by!

mrslittlebylittle