Conduit Curtain Rod Hack

As you know if you’ve been following along my blog, we are renovating a house we moved in last fall. What I’ve been working on lately is our master bedroom. I wanted to hang billowy white curtains, but the span of windows was almost nine feet long! To get a curtain rod solution that was inexpensive and strong, I came up with this!

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Here is what I bought at my local hardware store:

• two floor flanges for a 3/4″ pipe
• two 90 degree elbows for a 3/4″ pipe
• 3/4″ conduit metal pipe

These supplies amounted to just under $17 including tax. I had to look for the floor flanges in the plumbing department and the conduit/elbows were in the electrical department. Remember the last time I built with conduit for our stair railing?

The first step is to assemble your conduit pieces and measure the length of the whole thing. Then measure the width of you window including molding. You will want your curtain rod to hang about 6 to 12  inches past the window molding and as high to the ceiling as you can put it. I like to buy 92 inch curtains so I can have floor to ceiling window treatments. Measure accordingly so the length of your conduit curtain rod is centered on the windows with equal overhang on both sides.

Then drill holes to install the flanges. I drilled small holes to mark on the wall. I did drill into a stud in a few places which was great! For the holes where my bit didn’t hit a stud, I re-drilled with a larger drill bit and installed drywall anchors.

The next step is to string all your curtains onto the conduit pole. When you’re done threading the grommets or loops of the curtains onto the conduit, put the 90 elbow and flange back onto the pole. Don’t forget to tighten your screw to hold the pipe into place!

Now you’re going to need an extra set of hands. My hubby held up the other side of the fully assembled curtain rod plus curtains so that I could get screws started. Drill your screws into the anchors or stud holes you have ready to go. Make sure your 90 degree elbow is turned correctly and the conduit pole is level when you’re doing this. Don’t fully tighten the screws until it all looks good! 

The last step was to steam my beautiful curtains since they had been in storage since moving. If you don’t have a steamer, use your iron on the curtains before the step when you thread them on the conduit pole.

It’s as easy as that! I really like the industrial vibe this conduit curtain rod gives my room and it is SO functional! If you wanted to have a curtain rod in a different color, you can spray paint metal conduit to whatever color your heart desires!

In our master bedroom makeover, we still have a few more projects. I am going to be framing a large mirror soon and we’re replacing doors. You might have seen me refinish the mid-century dresser pictured here LIVE on my Facebook page this past week. Soon I will have the whole space to show off for you!

Thanks for reading and don’t forget to pin 🙂