Are you going to buy custom drapes or ready made drapes? That will determine where you hang them. If you can afford custom you might want to hang the drapes higher. If you have to buy ready made drapes that will determine how high they hang. Ready made drapes generally come in 84 and 95 inch lengths.

I hang curtains right under the crown molding in my home; ceiling to floor. I like the ceilings to look as high as possible and drapes hung at the top give a more dramatic look. A good website for custom drapes is halfpricedrapes.com. Even without molding, I would hang as close to the ceiling as possible.

Traverse rods (the little white ones) were not made to be shown. Unless you plan on having a valance/cornice over the tops, I would use something decorative. They are very functional, but if you aren't needing the drapes to actually open and close, they'll look much more attractive on a decorative rod.

I like them to hang as high as possible as well it gives the room hight because it draws the eye up.

I was wondering if I should switch out the rod since we won't be opening and closing. I was trying to be thrifty and hoping if I raised it to the ceiling no one would notice the white railing all the way across.

I think I'll try moving it and hanging the curtains and see if it looks ok before shopping for a new rod. I do like the streamlined look of the traverse rod, if nothing else.

I was going to use regular curtains--not custom. My length would be 96" but if 95" is the longest I don't think that would be a problem.

Thanks for the ideas. I'll post back when I find something to hang.

De

I don't blame you for being thrifty! Moving is an expensive proposition, and you've already spent $$ on other things like redoing the wood floors. I find it a challenge in a project to see how inexpensively I can make improvements! It just seems, though, that one thing leads to another.

I agree that your rods need to be very close to the ceiling. I'd also set them wider so that most of your panel is covering wall, not window. See how they are now, perhaps only an inch or two past the side of the windows? How wide are your windows? For example, if a window is 36 inches wide, I'd want the rod to be 50-54 inches.

I'm going to give several options for your rods, in order of most expensive to least expensive.

Wood rods, the bulky decorative type. Lowe's has a good selection at reasonable prices. But it will still run about $150 for the three you need.

Narrower metal rods. Do you have a Joann near you? When I have decorated on a budget, I've bought my rods at Joann. I went armed with 40% off coupons, prepared to buy them one at a time, take it to my car and go back in the store and repeat that process a couple more times (I think they allow the 40% off one item only). But low and behold, all their drapery hardware was on sale that week at either 40 or 50% off, so I went back home with coupons still in my wallet! With the discount, you can get black or silver rods for about $15-25 each.

A very inexpensive option would be to use the traverse rods, but paint them black. I would just try to find a way to not having white rod showing!

As to the drapery panels themselves, take a look at JC Penneys. They have some great sales, and some of their things are nice, especially the Chris Madden line. Also recently I decided to hang curtains in my garage windows and of course didn't want to spend a lot for that! I looked at Walmart and was pleasantly surprised that they had a decent looking selection at great prices. But I'm not sure if they have the 95 inch length. So it wouldn't hurt to take a look there. Don't forget to check out Craig's list too!

Here is a link that might be useful: silver rods

Here's another.

Here is a link that might be useful: Black rods

You could do some inexpensive wood ones by buying the brackets and end pieces then closet rods cut to what size you need them. Paint and stain and have what color you like.

As for hanging. I don't like them all the way to the ceiling, but also not right above the window. I prefer a little space between the ceiling and window. To me all the way to the ceiling highlights the ceiling too much, but down at the edge of the window makes it look squatty. 6" from ceiling I think is a good compromise or halfway between top of window and ceiling.

I was working in a designer's office today - she works mostly with window coverings, & we were talking about just this - how high to hang the drapes.

She said the best spot was 1/3 down from the ceiling (or bottom of crown molding) to the top of the window frame. When I got home & looked at where I had recently hung my living room rod, it was spot on 1/3 down - that was what visually worked best for me, so I guess I would have to agree with her. :)

Thanks moonkat99. I just love a good tip like that!