I found all the materials I needed to complete this 15-minute DIY project at The Home Depot. Here’s what you’ll need:
• 5/8″ Dowel Rods – I needed 2 to go across my 76″ wide window. You can order Round Dowels from the Home Depot or Round Dowel from Amazon (Dowel Rod option 2 on Amazon if the first is sold out, pick the length that works for you!)
• Copper coupling with stop – to connect the two dowel rods
• Command Strips Large Utility Hooks
• Tape Measure or Ruler
• Rubber Mallet – to secure the copper fitting

To assemble your DIY dowel curtain rod, you’ll slide a dowel rod into each end of the copper coupling. Push until they are snug! For extra security, you can always add a dab of wood glue inside the coupling before inserting the dowel rods.

How high you hang your curtain rods depends on your curtain length (typically either 84″ or 96″) and if you like puddling curtains or not, but a good rule of thumb is to put your brackets – in this case, Command Strip – 4 to 6 inches above your window OR centering them between the window molding and the ceiling.

I chose to stick my Command Strips where the hook would be at 6 inches above the window, which was just a little shy of vertically centered in my small apartment. You can follow the instructions on the Command Strips box, but it’s basically a peel-and-stick method.

You’ll need a Tape Measure or Keychain Tape Measure

Because my windows are pretty wide and I didn’t want a third Command Strip in the center of my window, I positioned each about 6 inches from the window edge to give more support toward the center of the rod.

You’ll want to wait for the Strips to adhere strongly to the wall before hanging anything from them; the recommended length of time is 1 hour.

You can see by how the dowel rod sits on the Command Strip that pulling the curtains closed won’t be a smooth task, so you don’t want curtains with a rod pocket because you’ll have a pucker where the hook sticks up. I recommend using curtains with the back tabs or hidden because they’ll conceal the hook and you’ll be able to arrange them on the rod smoothly. Curtains with grommets will be too wide because of how close to the wall the dowel rod will sit.