How to Make an Unusual Drapery Hook

Make an unusual yet functional drapery hook from a wire hanger.

Drapery hooks are silent workers in the world of household décor. Slipped between the heading of a drape and then into the holes on a curtain tract bracket, they hold drapes in place, allowing the homeowner to open and close them. Though never seen, and seldom appreciated, the drapery hook is a hardworking member of the window’s dressing. If you’re in a pinch and discover you’re one pin or multi-prong drapery hook short, you can create an unusual drapery hook from a wire hanger that won’t look pretty but will hold your drapes securely.

Things You'll Need

• Wire hanger
• Tape measure or ruler
• Wire cutters
• Permanent black marker
• Needle-nose pliers

Instructions

1. Measure an 8-inch section from the bottom of the wire hanger. Cut it from the hanger with a pair of wire cutters and discard the remainder of the hanger. A wire hanger may be unusual material with which to fashion a drapery hook, but the wire is durable and still thin enough to be bent without the use of machinery.

2. Measure 3 inches from one end of the wire with a tape measure or ruler. Make a mark on the wire with a permanent marker.

3. 

   Wire hangers provide unusual material to create a drapery hook.

   Use a pair of needle-nose pliers to bend the wire in a U-shape at the 3-inch mark. You will now have a U-shaped wire with a 3-inch side and a 5-inch side.

4. Measure 2 inches from the end of the 5-inch side of the U-shaped wire and make a mark with a permanent marker on the wire.

5. Place your finger against the 5-inch wire, near the top, and use a pair of needle-nose pliers to bend the wire at the 2-inch mark in the opposite direction, over the side of your finger. The wire is now bent into a 3-inch U-shape with a hook on one side. Though constructed from unusual wire material, this innovation will keep your drapes secured to the tract and will save you from having to buy an entire package of drapery hooks.

6. 

   Use needle-nose pliers to bend the wire into a drapery hook.

   Slip the 3-inch U-shape of the wire hook into the drape heading, and the hook into the hole in the bracket contained in the curtain tract. According to Alternate Windows, some drapery hooks are sewn into the drapery heading rather than slipped into the drapes like pin and multi-prong hooks.

Tips & Warnings

• Pinch pleat draperies require pronged or multi-pronged drapery hooks. According to Marburn Curtain, pinch pleat draperies contain a “drapery heading where the basic pleat is divided into two or three smaller, equal pleats, sewn together at the bottom edge on the right side of the fabric.” These draperies are “identified by the pleated fabric at the top of the curtain (there is no rod pocket). Also called draperies, they are attached to a traverse rod or pole rod with rings by using drapery hooks or clips.” A pin hook “pins into drapery pleat and hooks to traverse carrier or café rod.”

• Use caution when operating wire cutters.

References

• Alternative Windows: Curtain Basics
• Marburn Curtain: How to Hang Curtains Glossary

Resources

• Inside Out Designs: Drapery Hook Photograph
• Interiors by Medline: Window Treatments Information and Diagrams