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This is something I wish I had known about a long time ago. Here’s how to get new curtains to hang straight. Such a great trick.
We were on a shoot for a designer a few years ago, and she taught me this little trick, which I thought was brilliant. When you get new curtains – the kind that come folded up in a square in a package – they’re often creased in such a way that they just won’t hang straight, even after you fuss with them a whole bunch. Especially with heavier weight curtains, either the liner or the curtains themselves are sometimes a fabric that doesn’t respond well to a lot of ironing. I actually had a little spot on our old living room curtains where I melted the liner trying to get them to hang properly. I’ve since replaced those melted curtains and definitely used this trick for how to get new curtains to hang straight when I first installed them.
I’m using my newest curtains today to demonstrate, the ones I recently hung upstairs in Kennedy’s room, although these curtains actually didn’t need it. When these custom curtains were shipped to me, they were brilliantly packaged in a way that allowed them to hang perfectly, right out of the package, instead of the way curtains are usually folded in a basic square shape. Why don’t more manufacturers do this? Well, until they do, we have this clever trick.
Tools Needed For This Project
- Lovely new curtains of your choosing (These are the affordable velvet drapes I have in my living room, dining room, and primary bedroom, and these are the patterned ones you see in this post – use code CH12 for 12% off)
- All your necessary hardware (curtain rods, curtain rings if using, etc.)
- Masking tape or painter’s tape
- Optional: Handheld steamer
More home decor inspiration from this room: Installing Wallpaper in Our English Country Inspired Spare Room
Getting New Curtains to Hang Straight
The great thing about this trick is that it works well with almost any kind of drapery fabric you might choose when finding something to complement the rugs, pillows, and other furnishings in your house. Whether your draperies are linen, insulated blackout curtains, faux silk, sheer, taffeta, or cotton twill, this will make them look so lovely. This method works well with grommet curtain tops, rod pocket panels, or a drapery rod with curtain rings and hooks like I usually use.
Start out by hanging your curtain panels as planned. Stand back and observe how terrible they look. Steam them a bit to try to get them as acceptable-looking as possible and stare in frustration at how they look better, but still not quite right. You know that’s exactly how it goes! 🙂
The problem is that not only do you need to remove the creases from the packaging, you also need to train the fabric to fall just right, not all willy-nilly. And that’s where the “tape on the curtain” trick comes into play.
Fold your curtain, accordion-style, so that the fabric is making kind of a zig-zag pattern. Then squish the accordion of fabric in really tight. Kind of like folding it up, but while it’s still hanging.
Wrap the accordion curtains in tape at the top, middle, and bottom of the curtains so that they’re held in that shape very tightly.
Leave them like that for 24-48 hours.
More home decoration hacks for your space: How to Paint a Lampshade
Un-tape them and stand back in amazement at how your curtains now look absolutely perfect.
This will work even better if your curtains are exactly the right height. If you have a little bit of puddling action at the bottom, it really depends on what fabric you’re working with. It may look absolutely beautiful, but some fabrics just aren’t meant to puddle and may cause your curtains to look really nice at the top but still imperfect at the bottom. In this case, hem your curtains and try again! If you’re not up for a sewing project, a hem held in place with regular packing tape works surprisingly well on most fabrics.
It’s amazing how getting each pleat in your window treatments just right can add so much elegance to a space.
Pictured above: Rug | Curtains | Mirror
Have you ever tried a trick similar to this? I loved seeing how well this worked for the designer who taught me this trick, and I was so happy to find that it worked just as well for me.
Read next: The Curtains in the Dryer Trick
Courtenay Hartford is the author of creeklinehouse.com, a blog based on her adventures renovating a 120-year-old farmhouse in rural Ontario, Canada. On her blog, Courtenay shares interior design tips based on her own farmhouse and her work as founder and stylist of the interior photography firm Art & Spaces. She also writes about her farmhouse garden, plant-based recipes, family travel, and homekeeping best practices. Courtenay is the author of the book The Cleaning Ninja and has been featured in numerous magazines including Country Sampler Farmhouse Style, Better Homes and Gardens, Parents Magazine, Real Simple, and Our Homes.