how to hang corner curtains

Someone on Instagram requested I explain how to hang corner curtains recently. I thought to myself, “yeah that’s definitely a tricky task”. Luckily, we have a room in our home that we’ve been meaning to hang corner curtains up in, so I’m here today to tell you just how to do it!

The “sunroom” in our house has windows all along the back of the house and then one pesky window on the side. The thing that was important to me when doing this in our own home was to treat all of the windows like one large window, rather than breaking them up. (I’ll get to more on that later)

The Steps

First, you’ll need to order + gather your supplies:

Second, you’ll hang the curtain rods as close to the ceiling as you can without overlapping your trim crown molding, and without lifting the drapes off the ground (so make sure you have your partner or friend hold the drapes up where the rod will be to test the length out).

We hung the short rod to start, and then connected the corner joint.

Third, we hung up the longer rod. (follow packaging instructions on how to hang)
PRO TIP* make sure if you aren’t drilling the supports directly into a stud, that you’re using a wall anchor.

When Hanging the Curtain Rod:

have the rod come past the window a few inches, you don’t actually want your drapes to cover up the glass part of your window, just some of the trim (this gives the illusion that your windows are bigger than they actually are while also allowing all the possible natural light to come through)
I find hanging the rod about 8 inches from the ceiling works in most cases when you have 9-10ft or taller ceilings, if you have standard 8ft ceilings you should try to get them as close to the ceiling as possible so your space feels taller

Fourth – hopefully by this step you’re happy with the placement of your curtain rod. You’ll want to fish your curtain hooks through the ribbon lining of your curtain drape panels. This will give your curtain rings something to loop into, hanging your drapes securely from the rod. These are called pleater hooks and I’ve linked them above and here.

Once your pleater hooks are lined across each drape panel (I recommend 7 per panel) then you’re ready to slide the rings through each pleater hook. Make sure when you’re sliding the rings on they are facing the correct way so that your curtain edges aren’t exposed, all drapery panel end pleats should run back into the wall instead of out into the room so you don’t see the edges.

Finally, once all your hooks are on you’re ready to slide them onto the curtain rods and back up onto the supports to settle into their new home.

Let’s Talk Curtains

The curtains I always recommend and that I linked to above and here are blackout curtains. Don’t let that scare you! Remember when hanging curtains that you’re not going to be covering up much of the window, in order to allow lots of natural light in and make your windows appear larger. Another thing to remember is that with blackout curtains you’re guaranteed extra lining (which is normally very expensive when you go custom). With this extra lining weight is added to your curtain panels, making them pleat seamlessly and that’s what gives drapes that expensive and elevated look.

I recommend one panel always on either side of a single window, so two panels total. In a case like this where I’m treating this series of four windows as one, I recommend two panels on either side, so four panels total. We’ve used this same technique in our bedroom where we have a wall of windows. This makes the scale level out, rather than having huge windows and dinky looking drapes, by adding an extra panel or two it thickens up the look and balances the space. Hanging drapes is all about the optical illusions, especially when considering how to hang corner curtains. And, in the case of hanging corner curtains I don’t recommend putting a panel between every window, that looks dated and tacky, instead tread your windows as one large window and put the drapes on either side.

I hope this post has helped you tackle the question of how to hang corner curtains in your own space. If you end up using these tips or products to hang corner curtains in your own home, I’d love to know! Feel free to reach out to me and share your before and after photos!