Do It Yourself Bay Window Curtain Rod Tutorial

It's taken me a while but I'm finally ready to hang up curtains in the master bedroom, which is a bay window. So I set out looking for a bay window curtain rod for my space. Those things are NOT cheap. I take that back, you can get the white aluminum kind for $25 online. But who wants those? The next step up was a basic bronze curtain rod for $50. Not going to work in my space. So I decided to do what any thrifty girl would do--MAKE MY OWN!

Here are the materials you'll need for the DIY bay window curtain rod.

1. 10' long 1/2" Electric Metallic Tubing (EMT) Conduit

2. 5/8" wooden dowel rod

3. 45 degree galvanized elbow pieces (2)

4. Wood insert nuts (2)

5. Can of Rustoleum Metallic Paint. I used Satin Nickel as my color.

6. Curtain Brackets--to hold your "rod" onto the wall. I was lucky enough to find three of these packages at the local Goodwill. The second picture shows a close up of the bracket and the hardware it came with.

7. Two finials of your choice.

Once you have all your parts you'll be ready to begin the actual assembly.

1. You'll need to measure for the length of your windows and cut the EMT pipe to the appropriate lengths. Be sure to account for the elbow pieces in the corner so you'll need to cut a little shorter than your actual measurement. I was able to get all three rods out of one ten foot long section of EMT pipe. 

2. Clamp the dowel rod into a bench vise and then drill a hole in the center of each end of the dowel for your wood nuts.

3. Cut off each end of the dowel to a 3" long piece.

4. Put the dowel into the EMT conduit. Make sure you put them into the shorter side pieces as this will be where you screw in the finials. Also, this is a tight fit which requires no glue--though you'll probably need a rubber mallet to get the dowel into the EMT conduit.

5. Once the wooden dowel is completely in the EMT conduit take a screwdriver and screw the wood nut into your pre-drilled hole.

This is what the pipe will look like once the dowel and the wood nut are in place.

6. Spray paint your curtain rods with your color of choice.

7. Screw your selected finials into the nut inside the rod.

Now you are ready to hang your new curtain rod! I won't get into the details of the actual hanging as it should be pretty self explanatory what goes where. Here's mine assembled and hanging on the wall! If you place your curtains just so you can actually conceal the elbows and the wall brackets.

Here's a breakdown of the cost for the DIY Bay Window Curtain Rod.

$3.98   10' long EMT conduit
$2.50   Galvanized elbows ($1.25 each)
$7.97    Rustoleum spray paint
$1.98    Wooden dowel rod
$2.92    Wall brackets (3 boxes, 2 brackets in each box)
$1.85    Wood insert nuts (2 per pack)

Total Cost: $21.20

* I already had the finials so if you had to buy them it would be an added cost.
*If you already had the spray paint your cost would be even less!!

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