Installing curtains should be easy right? Not for us!

Buying a new build meant that there were no curtain poles installed. We were excited about being new homeowners and thought we should try our hand at DIY.

Luckily the lockdown restrictions had eased and so we put them up when my parents were visiting and Dad taught us how to do it. It was great that he could watch us as we did it, just in case we had any major problems.

Tip: Don’t pick a hot day to do it! The August heatwave meant we were putting up curtains when it was around 30C. It was so tiring and hot! By the end of it, I was just feeling so exhausted and grumpy.

If you are just getting started, I have written about buying and measuring for curtains here!

This post focuses on what happened when we tried to install the curtains and some useful links.

Memorable moments from our DIY experience:

• Hubby made the marks on the wall for where to drill the holes and used inches instead of centimetres. All I can say is that it is a good thing that we double checked and used a pencil to mark the wall!

Tip: Use a pencil to mark with a cross where you want to drill a hole, have an eraser to hand and double check the measurements!

Tip: Drill a pilot hole first with a smaller drill bit as that makes it easier when you drill with a larger drill bit.

• We had a few occasions where the wall plug went in three quarters of the way and then got stuck! I was using a hammer to tap it in but as it was stuck, I ended up using more force so the wall plug went out of shape!

Tip: Double check that the size of the hole is suitable for the wall plug. The wall plug should have a tight fit.

• We were super excited that we had managed to install the brackets so we started securing the curtain pole to the brackets and then realised we needed to first put the curtain rings on and that we forgot to check the brackets are level with a spirit level.

Tip: After making the marks for bracket positions, don’t forget to check with a spirit level!

• We bought pleated curtains and started pulling the cords to gather the material to create the pleats, except one end of the cords wasn’t secured so ended up pulling out the cord. We had to re-thread it through the curtain material and we didn’t have a needle which was large enough so it was a little fiddly!

Tip: Check the cords at one end are secured before pulling.

Useful link: Dunelm has a great article on hanging curtains! For the Dunelm pleated curtains, they come pre-gathered and cannot be returned if you have gathered the material (unless it is faulty) so definitely double check the curtains are the right size before gathering. Their website states that once gathered, the pleated curtains are half their pre-gathered width.

Tools and equipment

The tools and equipment that we used for installing our extendable curtain rods:

• 3 in 1 detector (we used something similar to this)
• Steel tape measure
• Ruler
• Pencil
• Eraser
• Spirit Level
• Screwdriver
• Screws
• Drill
• Drill bits
• Wall plugs
• Hammer
• Combination pliers (for pulling out a wall plug when it got stuck)
• Vacuum

Useful resources

As you can tell, we’re not experts at installing curtains so apart from sharing the issues we faced, I can’t give a detailed step by step guide but there are a lot of useful resources online which guide you on how to do it!

I’ve put the links below.

B&Q had a really great step-by-step video!  It’s definitely worth a watch!

Unsure which type of drill bit is needed? Here’s a detailed guide on the different types from Bosch.  I had no idea there were so many different types until Dad brought along his box of drill bits.

There’s also useful guides on the different types of wall plugs and how to fit them.

Hope it all goes smoothly for you!

Jess