And before someone says it - yes, I know above rod is too close to the window. This was an existing rod and is being moved. The ones I have hung are higher above the window.

I've never considered mine hideous, nor do I notice my eye going to it unnecessarily. I have cotton panels on my two sliders. 99% of the time they are pulled all the way to the sides. Without the center bracket, the rod would not safely and sturdily span the distance between the two sides. I consider the center bracket fine and dandy for it's function and service. Other things may bother me in my house, but not those center brackets.

I agree with Linelle. I have never paid attention to my middle bracket. My eyes do not even notice the rod as they go straight to the curtains.

I don't know why your support bracket is so large. The back should be hidden by the curtain rod. This bracket supports the rod and the rod itself will hide the vertical attached to the wall. I found this at Bed Bath and Beyond.

I kinda get it: even a relatively expensive rod has pieces that show that are utilitarian at best. I don't know that it's hideous but they could make the bits and pieces a bit more nice-looking.

I can sympathize with the OP, but then we made several mistakes when ordering and hanging our curtains and rods years ago so I think it's the combination of all of them that annoy me.

We only have drapes in our master bedroom where we have a large bay window. We should have ordered 2 sets of panels, because when they're shut (on cold nights) they are almost completely stretched out which looks silly, and when they're open they look skimpy. I also wish they were longer so I could have hung them closer to the ceiling, so next time will order ones that are longer even if I have to hem them.

We ordered our hardware and drapery from Pottery Barn when we were ordering our bedding there, and I didn't give it too much thought at the time. As for the middle bracket, ours is a big circle at the base, which does draw my eye to it. It's probably not something anyone else would even notice, but it bugs me. I recently bought new PB drapery brackets on eBay that are less prominent (just a vertical bracket as opposed to a big, circular bracket) because I won the auction for super cheap, but want to get longer, wider panels before we put up the less prominent brackets.

As if the too short, too narrow, and prominent middle bracket weren't enough, I also recently discovered that we must have accidentally ordered the large diameter drapery rings (meant for a thicker rod) rather than the small size to fit our .75" rod. It took me a long time to figure that one out-- we've had those drapes up for about 10 years now and I finally realized out why the rings looks comically huge compared to the rod.

I know this is a bit long winded, but if it prevents someone else making the same mistakes, it will be worth it.

I think your bracket looks okay...you want it the same color as your rod. Maybe a dumb idea but the only thing that might help is to paint the back of the bracket that screws to the wall, the same color as the wall. I think when you get the rod at the correct height you won't notice it as much.

Erinsean, that was a very good suggestion, it would make a huge difference.

I put up valances when I want to cover that, but it depends on the style of the drapes. Often I hang valances and no drapes or curtains - just blinds.

A bigger problem (for me) is having drapes that must open all to one side, for a sliding glass door. The center support does not work in this case AFAIK, and I have a single span wooden rod that bows in the middle slightly with the weight of the drapes, which I think is worse than having a center support showing.

I have two completely different types of drapes in our art studio/dining room. One is velvet, which I made so that I can block glare on the TV from the sliding glass doors (there is an opening in the wall separating the room from the living room, allowing in light from the glass doors), and the others are vintage Art Deco damask, which I have kept because I was told that they are collectible. It's a multi-purpose room, and so I think it is okay. The damask drapes also open to just one side because I used to have a window A/C unit (the vertical kind) in one side of the window. We got central A/C about three or four years ago, however, due to summers getting hotter - we did not need it when we first moved in, and now we no longer have the window unit, but the drapes still open on one side. I never close them because we have blinds on that window, which has a view only of our side yard (and no houses).

I say all of this to show that I am less formal when it comes to drapes. Most of the time I spend in that room is in the dining part, and the art studio part is rather casual. I have a bit of symmetry in my living room, but not really that much there either. We have maintained symmetry in window treatments only in the bedrooms.

The traverse rod over the sliding glass door (that was in our house when we bought it) has the center support on the top of the rod so that the drapes pull all the way open to one side with no obstruction.

The drapes on that rod were ruined in the Harvey flooding so I replaced them with panels, now the traverse rod only pulls the first panel closed and leaves the rest bunches up (the previous drape was one very wide panel), so I bought a standard rod and will have to get used to not having the pull cord to open them all the way (and a center bracket obstruction). Oh well.

<The traverse rod over the sliding glass door (that was in our house when we bought it) has the center support on the top of the rod so that the drapes pull all the way open to one side with no obstruction.>

I had that kind of traverse rod, and it was even more difficult to hide the rod - the whole rod was exposed when I hung the drapes, and so I replaced it with a wooden rod that has rings. My drape was a large single panel, and I could not adjust the hooks to make them lower.

Thanks Blubird, I'll give that a try until I install the new rod.

Yes Lars/J.Robert Scott, the whole traverse rod shows above the drapes, but that will be going bye bye soon.

My pet peeve too. Google horizontal curtain rod brackets. sorry don't have time to post pics