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DIY Industrial Drapery Rods

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The Goal

West Elm sells a beautiful industrial drapery rod .  I love that the rod curves to the wall, so your drapes can cover up the sides of your windows completely. What I don’t love is the price, because I can tell that it’s basically a few of electrical and plumbing pieces coated with a fancy finish. When I saw it, I thought, “Hey, I could do that!” Before beginning, I found a tutorial online (nope, this hack is not my original idea!) that breaks down the steps really well, but doesn’t cover coating the metal. I don’t know about you, but I like my fancy finish. Hopefully, the additional steps I share help you out in that department. I had to make 3 rods, at 60” each. For each rod, I needed 2 elbows, 2 nipples, 2 floor flanges, and 1 piece of electrical conduit (EMT) cut to size.

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Note: it was cheaper to get the metal parts online vs. a brick and mortar store—with the exception of the EMT. Also, a brick and mortar store might cut the EMT for you. Since I already had spray paint, primer, and liquid de-glosser, the cost for this project came in under $40!!!! For 3 drapery rods. That means there’s more money for fancy cheese and a dinner out with my boo. You feel me.

The Steps

  1. Measure and cut your EMT. They can do this at the store from which you purchase it or you can cut it yourself easily with a pipe cutter, as I did.20140124_151913
  2. Apply liquid deglosser to all of the metal parts. Rub it on, let it sit for 10 minutes….oh, and wear gloves. Trust me on this one.20140122_081533
  3. Prime all your metal pieces with a heavy duty primer.20140122_093536
  4. Spray paint your metal pieces. This was the most difficult step since the EMT is long and narrow. I refuse to show you a close up, because it’s upsetting. I’m just not an experienced spray painter, I suppose! If I redid this, I would use an oil based enamel and a long, flexible brush, as that is what I am comfortable with, but to each her own! Make sure to let your metal take a nice long break between each coat of paint (I did one coat a day, but that is mostly because I hated this part so much).
  5. Assemble your pieces: elbows onto nipples, nipples into flanges, and temporarily put the EMT into the elbows to make sure it fits snugly.
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  6. Measure the finished length of everything assembled so you can hold your tape measure over your window and confirm this is the length you want for your drapery rod.
    20140220_131001
  7. Install one connected flange/nipple/elbow on the left side of the window, by using a heavy duty drywall anchor (if you are not drilling into studs), followed by the flange, secured by a screw going into the anchor. Make sure that your elbow opening is straight (perpendicular to the floor), so that your EMT will sit parallel to the floor. This matters more than where the screw holes on the flange being perfectly straight up and down or side to side, as they will be covered up by your curtain or drape.
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  8. Once the left side is mounted, install the top screw into the opposite flange/nipple/elbow on the right side of the window. Because I had carefully measured out where the left flange/nipple/elbow would go, I didn’t measure out where the right side would go. I simply used my EMT to line everything up by placing it into the left elbow, and using that to attach my right elbow to the right end of the EMT. That may seem confusing. Let me know if it does.
  9. Once aligned, I marked my holes for screws on the right flange, removed the EMT, and drilled in 1 anchor/screw at the top of the right flange. I then installed the bottom anchor, but not the screw. I didn’t want to do the second/bottom screw, because I wouldn’t be able to turn the flange at all to get the drape onto the EMT and the EMT into the elbow openings.20140220_135244
  10. I then slid my drape panels onto the EMT, placed the left side into the left elbow, held it carefully in the right elbow, aligned my screw opening on the flange with the mark on the wall and hand screwed the screw into my bottom anchor, through the bottom screw hole. 20140220_135658
  11. You would need to do this for a back tabbed or grommeted panel, or a set of drapery rings. Drapery panels would be clipped to the rings afterwards.
  12. Then, I used a drill to tighten all the screws.
    20140220_140704
  13. Finally, I pulled my drapes over the elbows, so they extended all the way to the wall. NO sunlight waking me up anymore. Our bed is right next to this window.

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Lots of steps, but totally worth it! So, are you willing to go through the steps to save some dough? Do you find yourself scheming of ways to buy more fancy cheese? Just curious… ;)

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Linking Up To: The Dedicated House 

About Lee Harmon Waters

Lee lives near Richmond, VA, where she is fixing up a new house. She's married with a daughter, a dog, and a design dilemma on her brain at any given moment. Lee's bubbly and outgoing personality makes her stand out as the life of the party, no matter where she is. She loves laughing, lions, and lemon everything.

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Comments

  2. Janet says

    I looked in brick and mortar big box store for these parts. We have a 12′ picture window! Where we looked the parts were prohibitively expensive. I’ll have to check this out. Thanks.

    • Lee Harmon Waters says

      Definitely give some of those links a gander, Janet. One of them only sells to businesses, so I used my interior design company’s information, but even Amazon.com had better prices than Lowe’s or Home Depot. If you have a 12′ picture window (LUCKY!), you’ll either need some sort of bracket in the middle to join two pieces of conduit, or you’ll want to do two separate rods that meet in the middle. Finally, there are other tutorials for using conduit and regular mounting brackets to create a standard drapery rod as well. Again, you’d need to join two pieces of conduit to get something long enough. You could do this by inserting a dowel into the ends that would meet. I had success doing this in a large, box bay window. Good luck!

    • Lee Harmon Waters says

      I’d love to see how it turned out, Selene! Thank you for stopping by LL-DC.

  7. says

    Oh my gosh yes! What a great deal for sturdy curtain rods that are also stinkin’ awesome! I def want to give these a shot. You did a good job on the finish, even if it’s nor perfect it still looks quite amazing!