Our house came with 15 feet of perfectly acceptable unlined pinch-pleated draperies in the living room covering 4 south-facing windows. The curtains were designed to just meet at the window gaps and to be tied back on either side of each window, rather than to operate on a traverse rod, so there is no overlap of fabric (such as would exist if master carriers/slides were being used).
I made blackout lining with thermal lining fabric, so that we could watch TV in that room during the day, and as a stop-gap just added it to the back of the existing curtains by hooking it onto the reverse side of the drapery glides. I simply arranged the blackout lining behind so that it overlaps and blocks all the light.
However, I still can’t operate the drapes, and I want to replace the existing hardware so that I can.
My problem:
I can’t just sew the blackout lining on the drapes, because then there wouldn’t be any overlap for light blockage. If I tried to overlap the curtains, they would be too short to cover the expanse of windows.
I would just buy a double traverse rod, and put the lining on the rear rod and the draperies on the front rod, but that would project out into the room at least 5 1/2 inches and cause the curtains to be on top of the heating vents. I would use the magnetic air-redirectors, but the curtains are to the floor.
Ideally, I would buy two regular traverse rods, and mount one behind the other, but I can’t find any brackets that will let me adjust the rear (lining) rod to be, say 1 ½ to 2 inched from the wall and the front one the standard 3 ½.
Ideas?