apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

I tried to do this in my bathroom for my shower curtain (long, involved story involving handmade showers and tall bathroom ceilings), but I couldn't find an appropriate easy-to-install concrete anchor for one of the walls. Any suggestions?

I would be careful doing this in the shower for safety reasons. You could slip and really hurt yourself on a taught thin cable-- or not.

I need to do this and I was planning to hang a regular curtain rod from the ceiling. This is so much simpler and cheaper! thanks a lot!

I love the site and the idea of the aircraft cable for curtains. Can this be done from the ceiling? Also I'm a novice on what size to order the attachments. I need a least 8' of wire preferably plastic coated stainless. What size turnbuckles and what size wire rope clips? The prices are so cheap. All other wire systems cost a lot more. Please advise. Thank you
Joann Chiorazzi

My sister did this in her apartment and it didn't work in the long run. The cable was attached to the walls with screws in anchor plugs, but the walls were plaster and eventually the wall crumbled around the plug (due to the tension?) and cable pulled out. If I were going to try it in a plaster wall, I would find a stud to put the screws in.

Joann: IKEA sells a similar system (although i like this one better as their system goes to 103" max.) with one verson that has the ends go onto opposite walls and one version where the ends are screwed into one wall with the wire going between them. perhaps the second version could mount to the ceiling?

not entirely sure if it would work. anyone?

Instead of the clips, which get hung on everything and require screwing the two nuts in, you can opt for aluminum ferrules and just hammer them flat to bind the wire. I just did this to make cross bracing for some bookcases and the feurrules look great, at 3/32" or even up to 1/4" you don't need any special tools, just a hammer. Oh and ferrules are cheaper.

I just hung some curtains from the ceiling to divide the space in my loft. I used the new DIGNITET hardware from Ikea and had pretty good luck with it, and I like its clean look. It comes with 197 inches of steel wire, which you cut down if you don't need that much (best to have some fairly burly wire cutters on hand).

Similar to the turnbuckles mentioned above, you turn a threaded rod with a small allen wrench (included) to create the right amount of tension on the cable. The only problem I ran into (which 'A reader' mentioned above), is that I used drywall anchors and screws to secure it to the ceiling. But the anchors aren't really adequate for this application so I can't get quite enough tension in the cable (or the anchors will just pull out of the ceiling). So I might have to redo it with stronger anchors. But the hardware itself seems very strong.

Here are some pictures, in case you're interested:

http://www.tcitykids.com/curtains/IMG_2474.jpg

http://www.tcitykids.com/curtains/IMG_2472.jpg

http://www.tcitykids.com/curtains/IMG_2471.jpg

http://www.tcitykids.com/curtains/IMG_2473.jpg

http://www.tcitykids.com/curtains/IMG_2476.jpg

http://www.tcitykids.com/curtains/IMG_2478.jpg

I also really like the look of using hospital curtain track and rollers, but the Ikea hardware was just easier to come by.

Great idea. The room done for HGTV in the picture above--where are the sofa, rug and glass table from?

What if it is a 22 foot wide space? Wouldn't the tension wire sag, and the wire pull out from the walls? I thought about hanging from ceiling but it's just thin drywall. Any suggestions?

I found this site that has 3 different kinds of hanging cable systems. check it out. goodluck.


www.mtdrapes.com/crs.htm

Can I use this cable system on my patio to hang shears? I'd like to give the illustion of an outdoor room with out the construction effort. What weight of airline cable would you suggest?

Thanks
Wendy

Any idea where I can pick up the pieces suggested for this project? Someplace like The Home Depot? Any information or suggestions would be much appreciated!

I am hoping to use this system in my daughters loft apartment soo. Where in Ft Worth can I get aircraft cable? And what size? I also would love to know where I can get LOTS of yards (30-50) of white linen-like fabric for a good price.

I am going to try this for my basement theater room. I bought used theatrical drapes that will divide the room in two and block off the light.

J

I did this years ago in my apt. It was my only option since the walls are so thin that they don't hold curtain brackets. So I drilled 3 holes in the ceiling, one at each end and one in the middle and then screwed eye hooks into the holes. The rest is just as described in the instructions above. The only problem is that I have to take the whole thing apart to put up new curtains. I use the metal shower curtain rings so any new curtains have to have holes at the top to slide onto the rings.

As fantastic as these instructions are, I haven't been able to find any other sites with instructions for hanging curtains like this. Does anyone know where I could get some alternate ideas and instructions as well?

Money for remodeling!
See a directory of lenders with ratings at LendersRated.com.

I really love this idea. Has anyone found new sites with information or new materials that may be used?

I learned how to do something similar here:
Home & Garden

I learned how to do something similar here:
Home & Garden

I was able to find all these materials at Ace Hardware. My only problem was the opposite of everyone else's - I live in a highrise where the ceilings are concrete and it's almost impossible to drill a small hole for screw-hook into the ceiling without breaking the drill bit.

And a resolution for taking everything down when changing curtains - use clips! You can find them pretty cheap clips online or at some fabric stores.

Any ideas how to do this in a non-permanent fashion? Can't put any holes in my walls unless I want to pay $$ when I move...I wonder if those 3M sticky removable hooks would work.

I just picked up the deka cable system from ikea and I guess I'm an idiot because I can't quite figure out how the heck it works.

Hello,

Has anyone used the Studio cable curtain rod system available at JC Penny? I just ordered it and am going to use it to hang a short curtain across a 135 inch wide space so that my loft area is blocked out from being seen from the living room below.

Hilti makes all sorts of chemical anchors. I have hung humans from them, so a curtain should be fine.

Has anyone tried using this system to hang privacy curtains in a mountain house loft? My loft guest bedroom has a floor to ceiling doorway that is 7 feet across and I would like to hang curtains on either side which could be closed when someone is staying in the room. The side walls are plastered drywall. Will this work? Will this be easy?

I have curtains that cover a doorway and want to rig a pulley system so that I can open the curtains vertically. (I would pull down on a chord and the curtains would raise up.) Any suggestions?

Any idea how to go about hanging curtains around a bed (to create the illusion of a canopy or 4-poster look) but with a vaulted ceiling?

An alternative -
I wanted to hang and living room. Because I wanted to be able to slide them all the way across the 7 foot opening, I needed a strong, long pole.I could not find one commercially, that did not require a support in the middle...I found a long metal grounding pole in the electrical dept of Home Depot that was long enough and small in diameter. When spray painted, I used cafe curtain rod holders to suspend the new curtain rod. I spent less than $20. to complete the whole project. It looked great and worked and stayed strong screwed into studs through wood paneling.

I'm having so much trouble with the Ikea DIGNITET hardware. I've got the stainless steel pieces screwed into the wall, so now I'm committed, but I can't get the wire more than 1/4" into the little hole on the first piece. Did anyone else experience this?

Katie

Would this kind of cable system work on a 23 foot wall? Or will the cable sag?

A cable may be an issue for long lengths and/or heavy curtains. You could use brackets on the ceiling and our company can supply you with a rod that will come in sections and connect almost seamlessly to make a rod of any length. The advantage to this is you don't have to muscle a 23 foot rod up a ladder in one piece and can use as many brackets as needed to keep the rod from sagging. Also it is a more elegant look than aircraft wire.
You can see some of your options here.
http://www.campbellironworks.com/curtain_rods_ceiling.html
http://www.campbellironworks.com/b_aluminum_curtain_rod_mira.html
Best regards,
Norman Campbell