Inconspicuous or flush mounted curtain rod bracket?

January 25, 2016 6:00 AM

Weird objectfilter. Looking for a permanently wall-mountable curtain rod bracket for our living room or something that can act as a curtain rod bracket that becomes inconspicuous as possible when the rod is not there. 1) Commercially available? or 2) my design? See pic & details here.

We have an entry way to our living room (approx 6ft across by 8 ft high) that we want to occasionally hang opaque curtain across for privacy. When not in use, and the rod/curtain is put away there should be the smallest amount of the hardware visible possible. We have a curtain rod, and are getting opaque curtains.

What we need is a pair of brackets for the rod that sits against a vertical wall (ie not ceiling mounted or "end mounted") that become as inconspicuous as possible once the rod and curtain are removed, since the wall area is quite visible See picture here and note the brackets should go where the red marks are

i) Does anyone know where I could buy an inconspicuous design for a curtain rod bracket that is mountable as described above....

or

ii) Where I could get something like my design? My design would have two rectangular pieces of metal joined by a hinge and a ‘block”. One rectangular piece has holes to mount the item to a wall. The other piece opens via the hinge to, say 45degrees and stays put. When open, a curtain rod could sit nestled in the hinge area, and thus two of these objects could be used to hold the rod. When closed, the object would stay closed would just look like a flat piece of metal.....

Hope me hivemind...

posted by lalochezia to Home & Garden (9 answers total)

What about these IKEA dealies? They open to 90 degrees, but the little lip on the hook part should be enough to keep the rod from falling off.
posted by Rock Steady at 6:16 AM on January 25, 2016 [2 favorites]

Best answer: I should add, if you search more exhaustively than I did for "folding coat hooks" or similar you might find exactly what you are looking for. I'm almost positive I've seen ones that fold out less than 90 degrees.
posted by Rock Steady at 6:31 AM on January 25, 2016 [1 favorite]

These IKEA ones might be similar to what you are looking for.

When my parents had a similar need, they used removable Command Hooks, like these. You can buy the sticky stuff that holds them up separately. They just put the hooks up when they need them and take them down when they do not.
posted by OrangeDisk at 6:41 AM on January 25, 2016

What about magnets? You could make a bracket with a strong magnet and then remove some of the dry wall, screw on a slightly recessed steel plate, cover that with a skim of mud and repaint.

Or you could skip the brackets and have the magnets sewed into the curtain in a half dozen places like a show curtain.
posted by bdc34 at 6:51 AM on January 25, 2016

Best answer: Why not just use a tension rod - something like this? Seems to be made for exactly your situation - no wall-mounted hardware needed at all.
posted by okayokayigive at 6:56 AM on January 25, 2016 [3 favorites]

I'd second the suggestion for just using a tension rod. I had that kind of setup for years in a condo (though it was to provide airflow stoppage, so that the main living room could be a/c cooled independently of the rest of the condo). It worked great with heavy curtains, and was easy to take down and stow when not in use.
posted by tocts at 8:52 AM on January 25, 2016 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Rather than curtain hooks that come out perpendicular to the doorway (which are very noticable and, you're right, would look silly all of the times you dont have a curtain and rod) you could get those curtain rod cups that sit inside the doorway. They're almost as flat as you can get.
posted by FirstMateKate at 9:13 AM on January 25, 2016

Use these 55lb magnet hooks, screw a fender washer to the wall at the desired height, screw two eye hooks into the end of a wood curtian rod, hand the rod from the hooks. You could recess the fender washers into the wall and cover with a latex spackle (you want something that stays flexible so it doesn't crack from magnetic pressure) to completely hide them or just screw on and paint to match.

They make magnets with eyebolts too that could be screwed directly to the end of the rod. Not sure what would be easier to mount.
posted by Mitheral at 3:23 PM on January 25, 2016

Response by poster: Despite qualms about tension rods (stability, wall marking), I ended up going with these guys that okayokayigive recommended, and their product works well.
posted by lalochezia at 12:55 PM on February 24, 2016