Mid Century Curtain/Drapery Rods.

Our living room curtain/drapery rods came with our house. I do not like them, never have. At the same time, I have not hated them or been bothered enough to swap them out... until now. While I've been patching funky wall spots and painting, I thought now would be the perfect time to swap them out because I would also like to move the rods higher up. That way I can FINALLY hem my curtains.

That is what I have been staring at for almost 4 years now. The color actually isn't too bad with the walls and new wall color. 

I think what bothers me the most is the window trim. Before we bought the house, the previous owners ran to the fantastic Home Depot down the road and bought those kits for fancy trim. They bought fancy trim that does not go with the house at all... I hate it so much. Adding that to my list of to do's right now.

This is the beautiful-ness we moved in to...

Aren't you jealous? That curtain (or rather those curtains, as there are two windows) got ripped down as soon as I unboxed the old ones from our apartment and they went into the Goodwill donations box. But back to the present...

Changing out curtain/drapery rods means actually finding something, picking out something. This leads me to what is considered mid century in terms of window hardware? I tried out Google. While the internet is a vast and wonderful wealth of information, it can way too broad. I am not the best at refining my key words, but it really got me no where. So, I went back to basics. I whipped out one of my favorites, Atomic Ranch: Design Ideas for Stylish Ranch Homes [Amazon] and looked through all of the 'pretty' pictures. That was of no help either. I only found naked windows and vertical blinds (scream of horror).

Then I decided to take a look in my Better Homes and Gardens Decorating Book from the 60's. I figured there could at least be some semi accurate things in there... They have an entire section on "Window Fashions."

I found most curtains were either inside the window or up high at the ceiling. Additionally there was an abundance of valances, shades, and blinds. There was almost always two layers of curtains, a heavy drape and a shear. I'm set on my curtain but have been thinking about a shear as well. Anyways, the whole purpose of looking, or trying to look, was to check out the hardware and that wasn't really visible or shown... So, I'm still back to where I started.

I'm not really sure where to go with this. I am thinking maybe simple and go with my gut.

But then we get to finishes. All of our doors have horrible shiny brass hardware, which we plan to address at some point. As we've been fixing and replacing things of the house, we've been moving most things over to the brushed nickel / stainless steel look. We also have an arc lamp in the living room that has that same finish.

West Elm has a couple of options that I like that keep it simple.

West Elm |  Oversized Metal Rod, Pin Window Hardware Collection, Industrial Pipe Rods, & French Rods

The Oversized Metal Rod is simple and it's available in a double option as well. The Pin Window Hardware is nice and small, less of a "HEY, look at me!" The Industrial Pipe Rods are awesome but I don't know that they 'fit.' I have seen an interesting pin floating around pinterest that involves a bungee cord to create a second rod. The French Rods could be great to be more of the not seen type. Too many options.

But.... A lot of mid century furniture has brass/bronze accents. Our cute yellow chairs have tiny little feet, but it's there. We also have that fantastic Martha Stewart mirror that's labeled as antique gold. We even have an awesome sunburst clock that has the brass/bronze in it, but these things are old (except the mirror), so that it doesn't have that shiny, new look. I did come across this one...

Lowe's  |  BCL Drapery Antique Gold Metal Double Curtain Rod

Or maybe something a little more 'ornate' like this one...

Lowe's  |  BCL Drapery Antique Gold Metal Double Curtain Rod

I believe these are also both available in single rod options as well.

I could always go to a black finish, which is available in all of those West Elm options and I'm sure I can find the above Lowe's options in black as well... An then there is wood. Wood could work too, but then I have to worry about the color and the fact that wood isn't usually adjustable in the length department.

Lowe's  |  allen + roth Antique Black Wood Metal Single Curtain Rod

The above could be interesting, but I'm thinking that looks more country...

Someone... anyone.... please help! Any suggestions out there? Would any of the above options work? Or do you have a completely different idea that's a lot better?

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Update: 3.6.2013
I think I found the one! Read about it here.

Update: 5.29.2013
Installed!