Bye-Bye Vertical Blinds - Renter-friendly Option

For the window by the entryway, I removed the vertical blind slats and replaced them with inexpensive accordion paper blinds (I used $3 Schotis blinds from IKEA). They're not fancy, but they give me the privacy that I need while still letting the light in. 

The one thing missing was curtains to dress up the window. To install the curtain rod I thought about using No-No brackets that go directly on the vertical blind track. I did this in my bedroom and it's a great option to avoid making holes in the wall. This time I wanted to hang my curtains higher up above the window, because doing that actually makes the window look a lot taller. 

I didn't want to make big holes in the wall to hang the curtain rod. I decided to try these strange looking brackets.Their special design makes it possible to handle the weight of heavy curtains, even though they are secured to the wall with just two small nails. No need for anchors or screws. 

I placed them so that the rod would be about eight inches from the ceiling.

It’s important for the brackets to be installed perfectly straight to work properly (tip: you can use a level app on your smart phone to make sure it's straight!).

The curtains I chose are a bit more see-through than I would have liked and as a result, the brackets are somewhat visible. I may end up painting the brackets wide so that you don't see them as much or I may change the curtains for more opaque ones.

I can’t tell you how happy it makes me to finally have curtains up - hanging them higher up close to the ceiling really makes the window look a lot taller but the fabric adds some softness and warmth to that corner of the apartment. So much more cozy and inviting.

This was just on of the projects for that space, and you can see the whole process of the transformation in this video and there’s a bit more details about the curtain project on my blog as well.