The Very Best Curtain Rods (2024)

From $28

From $30

From $89

Size: Four sizes, from 28” to 144” | Material: Steel | Finial style: Cylinder

This low-profile rod, recommended by interior designer Katherine Tlapa, has a similar minimalist aesthetic to the Dauntless rod, with a more streamlined design — it has one piece of hardware that serves as both a finial and a bracket, which creates an airy, lightweight silhouette. It would go well with any style of drapery, from a zanily patterned postmodern curtain to a classic linen panel. It comes in several finishes, including brass and matte white.

From $80

Size: Four sizes, from 28” to 126” | Material: Iron | Finial style: Customizable

These extendable curtain rods by RH (formerly known as Restoration Hardware) are made of iron, unlike our best-in-class rod, which is made of steel. Iron is generally heavier than steel for the same strength, but has a beautiful soft finish that interior designer Nicole Fuller calls “grounding and discreet.” When I tested out the rod at the RH showroom in Manhattan, I discovered another benefit: If you’re using curtain rings, the sound of iron on iron is softer and less grating than steel on steel, the material used in most curtain rods. If you’re sensitive to noise, iron rods may be preferable. Unlike the other ready-made rods on this list, these do not come with mounting hardware or finials, so each component has to be bought separately, but that does allow for more customization.

From $89

Size: Two sizes, from 28” to 108” | Material: Wood veneer, brass-finished hardware | Finial style: Cylinder

This wood-and-brass-finished curtain rod from West Elm has a warmer look than our best-in-class pick, perfect if your commitment to mid-century modern décor extends to your hardware. For a wooden curtain rod, it’s important that the rod itself is not wood — you want a wood veneer over a stronger material that’s less likely to bow, like steel or iron. Interior designer Erin Gatesuses a similar rod in her own living room but in an all-metal style. She calls it “substantial, clean, and simple.”

From $31

Size: Four sizes, from 28” to 150” | Material: Steel | Finial style: Cylinder

The four curtain rods above all require putting holes in your walls for mounting hardware; if you’re drill-averse, consider a tension rod. Leon and Wolff used these durable steel tension rods “all over the place” in a previous apartment, a converted factory space in Chinatown with high ceilings and plaster walls. “Instead of hanging art on the walls, we just hung Ikea white curtains everywhere” using these rods, Leon says. “It was really good for acoustics, and it gave us a lot of hidden storage.” They report that the rods did well up to seven or eight feet (after that, they started to sag a bit) and stood up to frequent use: “We took our doors off, and we used the curtains as doors, so we were using them a good amount,” Leon says.

From $14

Size: Custom length | Material: Steel | Finial style: Custom

An adjustable rod — like our best-in-class pick — has a visible notch somewhere along its length where the two telescoping pieces meet. Although it’s easy enough to cover with a curtain, if you prefer a seamless look, you’ll need rods that are custom-cut to fit your window. Hersch recommends the brand Highland Forge for “a custom look at a very good price.” In addition to choosing your style of rod (either round, square, or hammered), its diameter, and finish, you can customize the length, which eliminates the telltale telescoping rod notch. Buying a custom rod will also mean you have to shop for the additional hardware yourself, including finials, mounting brackets, and rings, for example. But according to Hersch, Highland Forge will “double-check your order to be sure you’ve got all the parts you will need to make the hardware work.”

$22 for 3

Size: Custom length | Material: Brass | Finial style: Custom

Another way to avoid the telescoping notch is to custom-cut your curtain rods yourself with metal tubing and a pipe cutter. Strategist senior editor Simone Kitchens made custom rods with lengths of this K&S Precision Metals brass tubing. “Our 1920 Craftsman house already has a lot of brass hardware, so I wanted vintage-y curtain rods to match,” she says, but she couldn’t find antiques that were the exact right length. She split the difference between new brass rods and vintage rings and finials bought at asalvage store in Albany(look for similar styles oneBay). The pipe was cut to size with a pipe cutter, below: “Brass is a soft metal so you can cutit with an electrician’s conduit cutter,” Kitchens says. “We just clip the exact length we need. Ahacksawworks too.”

$7

From $232

Size: Custom length | Material: Iron | Finial style: Custom

If you want to splurge on custom brackets, curtain rings, and finishes in addition to customizing the length of your curtain rods (which offers a degree of aesthetic control beyond what you’ll get with our best-in-class curtain rod), I recommend the Shade Store. Interior designer Betsy Burnham says its hardware provides a clean, unfussy complement to any drapery. “Our preference for window hardware is thin, black iron rods with the smallest rings possible, as I think the hardware should be tidy and unobtrusive,” she says. Burnham adds that the Shade Store’s step-by-step process ensures that you won’t forget anything you might need, like finials and rings.