Is there a rule of thumb for selecting window poles?

We are at the stage where curtains can be hung and as we have ome very large windows, too many, w are going for curtain poles rather than rails but where we have seen the poles the shop is suggesting we select wooden ones of a 40mm diameter but I think these will look too bulky for the windows, its a bungalow. The shop says we need the thicker ones for the heavy curtains?

Is there a rule of thumb or does it just go by individual taste?

Any help appreciated.

noah

Hi Noah,

They're probably right as the thicker pole will most likely take the weight of the heavy curtains a lot better than thinner poles. I'm just wondering though if you prefer the thinner ones if you could compensate by using more supports. If memory serves me well you may be able to buy these separate to the poles.

You could try ringing somewhere like [broken link removed] and get some advice from them.

it would take a lot more than the weight of some curtains to bend even a thin wooden curtain pole

I would think that a 28mm pole would be okay on a window up to 1.2m wide, a 32mm pole up to 2.1m wide and a 38mm/ 40mm pole for anything wider. But the style of the curtains,fabrick, french pleats etc all determine the choice of pole. A very slim pole looks mean on a wide window.

"it would take a lot more than the weight of some curtains to bend even a thin wooden curtain pole"

Word of warning for anyone with a patio door, or any window where you can only draw to one side. We have a fairly bog standard sliding patio door. The wooden curtain pole for it came with a middle support as well as one at each end. As we wanted to be able to bring the curtain all to one side, we had to leave out the middle support, with the result that the wooden pole does sag noticeably. It is on the (ever growing) list of jobs to replace it with a metal pole. I just hope that once we have done this, we don't get the urge to make every other window in the room match it.

many thanks to all, your comments helped us get our heads round what we needed so we ordered the lot today.

noah