Curtain Rod Installation in Boston
Bay windows, wide spans, heavy drapes. Rods set level, anchored into framing, matched across the room.
- Licensed & Insured
- Same-Day Available
- Satisfaction Guaranteed
Brownstones and Victorians around Boston are full of bay windows, and a bay is the hardest place in the house to hang a rod. You either need a bent bay-window rod with brackets at each angle, or three separate rods that meet cleanly at the corners.
Bay Windows Take Measuring
Either way, the drilling is the last step. Getting the heights to match across three walls that were plastered by hand takes more measuring than most people expect.
Wide Spans and Heavy Drapes
Wide windows bring their own rule: any rod over about four feet needs a center support or it sags. Add blackout drapes and a wide living-room window can carry 20 pounds of fabric. That weight has to go into studs.
On plaster walls we find the framing first, then set bracket heights off a laser line rather than off the ceiling, because the ceiling in an old house is rarely level.
The Rules That Hold Up
This Old House covers the standard height and width rules: roughly 4 inches above the frame, and 8 to 15 inches past it on each side if you want the curtains to clear the glass. Those rules hold up.
The shortcuts people take on anchoring do not, and a rod full of drapes on plastic anchors in plaster is a repair call waiting to happen.
Check Your Contractor
Massachusetts registers home improvement contractors, and you can check any contractor's HIC registration on mass.gov before they touch your walls. We encourage it. Curtain rods are part of our mounting and installation services across Boston and the North Shore.
What's Included
- Single rods, double rods, and bay-window rods
- Center supports on spans over four feet
- Stud anchoring for heavy drapes on plaster walls
- Laser-set bracket heights matched across a room
- Tiebacks, holdbacks, and finials fitted
- Old hardware removed and holes patched
How Long It Takes
A standard window takes 30 to 45 minutes. A bay window or a room of matched rods runs one to two hours. Have the rods and drapes on site and we hang everything in one visit.
The work is billed at our flat $100 per hour rate with a one-hour minimum, no trip fee anywhere in our service area.
Curtain Rod FAQs
Can you hang curtain rods on a bay window?
Yes. Depending on the angles and what you want the drapes to do, we use either a bent bay-window rod with brackets at each corner or three separate rods that meet cleanly. The hard part is getting matched heights across three walls that were plastered by hand a century ago, and that is a measuring problem we solve with a laser.
Will heavy blackout curtains pull the rod out of a plaster wall?
Not if the brackets are anchored into studs and a wide span gets a center support. Most failed rods we replace were held by small plastic anchors in bare plaster. Blackout panels on a wide window can weigh 20 pounds or more, and that load belongs in framing.
How high above the window should the rod go?
The standard is about 4 inches above the frame. Going higher, up to near the ceiling line, makes the room read taller, which works well in old homes with high ceilings. We set every rod in a room to the same reference line so they match, even when the window frames themselves do not.