Installing a West Elm Curtain Rod (Troubleshooting)

Earlier this year, we bought the Oversized Adjustable Metal Rod from West Elm in Antique Brass. The look is clean and simple with a modern finish. Based on the instructions, installation seemed easy enough ... until I actually attempted it. Learn from my mistake and save yourself hours of heartache.

Photo from West Elm

In the picture above, you can see that there are no visible screws attaching the bracket to the wall. This is because there is a separate mounting plate underneath that you screw into the wall. The bracket rests on top of the mounting plate.

C = bracket and F = mounting plate

The mounting plate and the bracket fit together nicely ... that is, until you screw the mounting plate onto the wall. If you screw it in securely, as I did, then you're not going to get that bracket onto the mounting plate no matter how hard you force it. The trick, it turns out, is to loosen the screws attaching the mounting plate to the wall until the plate is jiggly. This leaves enough space for the bracket to rest on top of it. I've attempted to depict this in my rudimentary drawing below.

Side View

There is some careful measuring required, especially if you extend the curtain rod all the way and need to use three brackets. If your window stretches nearly the entire length of the wall, you'll need to thread the rod through the rings of the bracket before you attach the brackets to the mounting plates. Otherwise, you'll have it all set up and not be able to actually fit the rod into the bracket. You got this, good luck!