Look, ignore the negative reviews. It's beautiful and it's cheap. Yeah, you have to do a little work. You have to screw the bases into the wall. They need to be screwed into something secure, not just drywall. There's going to be significant pull on the bases, and you don't want your curtains sagging! Hit a studusually about 1/2 inch out from the window edge. Mount the bases, then snap the covers over them. Mount them both first. Then extend the mechanism on the right side as far as it'll go. The instructions show how to do this, but it's easy even if you don't have instructions. There are 3 cylinders on the right side. The left one holds the wire, the right one is attached to the wall, and the center one connects them and tightens the wire once it's attached. The right piece isn't moving. It's screwed to the wall. Use the supplied Allen wrench to loosen the tiny nuts on the left side. Insert the wire. Tighten the tiny nuts onto the wire.Stretch the wire until it'll fit into the right piece with no slack. Having a friend helps here, but isn't necessary. Loosen the nuts on the right side, insert the wire, and tighten the tiny nuts again. Now hold the left cylinder so it doesn't turn, and turn the middle cylinder to take up the slack! Seriouslythey sometimes don't come with instructions. The "wire" is actually a thin, braided cable, so wire cutters are necessary to keep the ends from fraying. Frayed cable won't want to go into the holes. Don't be afraid of the installation processit's a snap.
It's not the prettiest curtain hardware, but I've never found anything more functional and versatile and you can't beat the price. I'm an urban renter, and when I move into a new place, I often like to install curtains in odd places to hide impromptu storage areas. This hardware will go absolutely anywhere, at any angle, any length. You can install it perpendicular to the wall or even from the ceiling. The curtain-clip feature is also quite versatile in terms of making my own curtains quickly and cheaply. I've had a pile of this hardware for several years, given it heavy use in a variety of applications, and it still looks and functions like brand new. The only trouble is it's pretty tricky to install. I've never been able to figure it out and have had to rely on the kindness of boyfriends to do it for me (really, IKEA, would it be that hard to put WORDS with your picture-instructions?!?). One time I lived in an old building with plaster walls rather than drywall, and the plaster stuck to the wall-mounts like crazy when I took it down. If you have plaster walls, be prepared to repair damage if/when you uninstall this hardware. (Also, the stuck-on plaster was impossible to remove from the wall-mounts until I figured out the solution: put it in boiling water for a few minutes!). The wire is rather difficult to cut, and I've had to purchase new wire when I've needed it to be longer than what I have left. Overall it's a great product, especially if you don't plan on having to install it more than once!
(Oh, and to the people complaining about having to buy screws separately: really?!? Different types of walls will require different types of screws, and you're whining about something that costs nearly nothing and is available practically everywhere).
Buy IKEA - DIGNITET Curtain Wire, Stainless Steel Now
When I was visiting my local Ikea store, I saw their use of this curtain wire set for the first time and I loved it. I have been looking for a way to display pics of my grandkids because the refrigerator is already maxxed out with magnets and photos. I saw great possibilities with this curtain-hanging set, so I bought it.Somewhere on the package it reads, "Easy to cut." No way. It is difficult. The wire itself is made of many smaller wires rolled together, just like a basket handle or a rope.The first three sets of wire cutters I tried did not do the job. At first I thought it wouldn't make any difference if the wires at the ends of the "rope" were separated -thought I could twist them back together again, but I couldn't. I couldn't crimp them together, couldn't twist them together, so the "rope" would not insert into the tiny hole of the bracket. I had to recut the edges with great patience, cutting each single wire one at a time, twisting the "rope" gently so that the wires would not unravel or mangel.
Once that was done, the ends of the "rope" did fit into the small holes of the bracket. However, despite how I pulled the "rope" to tighten the slack, I just couldn't level it out. I tightened and untightened screws, and finally, after a couple hours of all this, I just gave up. After all, I told myself, this is only for a photo display.However, the length of my entire display is only 28". One could only wonder what would happen if you had to actually hang draperies from this wire set; seems to me that the slack would be awful.
The next day, I took the remaining wire "rope" to work to ask the head of maintenance to trim off the edges so that I could use it for a picture display in my office. He used two different sets of professional wire cutters with great difficulty, but finally managed to cut the "rope." At least it didn't take him the hours it took me!
That being said, I love the over-all look of my photo display; it will be very easy to change photos and artwork.
Since I am not using this wire set for draperies, but rather for photos, I give the set 4 stars; I am subtracting a star for the hours it took me to cut the rope correctly.There is a less-expensive version of this from Ikea, and if I had it to do over again, I would buy that one.
Read Best Reviews of IKEA - DIGNITET Curtain Wire, Stainless Steel Here
I used one of these to mount some cable equipment that is meant to be installed outdoors (strand mount).Did a FAR better job than my Home Depot hand-rolled solution.
I guess it would probably work pretty well for its intended purpose, too.
Want IKEA - DIGNITET Curtain Wire, Stainless Steel Discount?
I just installed this today for a room divider in a small room. I used about 9ft of the wire that came with the kit and I have several feet left. The description states that you need to supply your own fasteners/hardware, so unless this addition was just made to the item description, no one can complain about this. I bought some #12 1 1/2" wood screws so that the heads fit into the pre-countersunk holes in the metal plates that you attach to the walls. One plate and three screws went into a stud and the other into a very smooth masonry wall with some Gorilla Glue. This Gorilla Glue works in *my* case I must have put about 15 lbs of downward pressure on it and for *me* it was fine, especially since less than 3 pounds will be hanging from it. I hate drilling through masonry walls in a rented house, and so this alternative works fine for me. The fact that the installation instructions are all pictorial was not a problem, the assembly was easy. If you're used to putting things together yourself, this is a simple project. The hardest thing is positiong the wire plates at either wall exactly where you want them if no studs are present. I don't want the wire to sag, so I checked for stud locations *before* ordering this, knowing that I might also have to use masonry anchors and screws. If you can't attach this to wall studs, you might just want to go with ceiling curtain rod brackets ad a very lightweight curtain rod (all of which Ikea happens to have for a lot, lot less than Home Depot).
If you want to be really cheap, twist two screw eye hooks into the wall studs (I hope they're directly opposite one another) and get some wire. But I do like the simple tension system with this set. The 17mm spacing they indicate you should use is good, especially if you're doing a long room and the wire tends to sag more during installation. With my 9ft room, I only needed about 10mm because my cut wire length was fairly tight to start. Better to cut off too little than too much you can always cut more off later.
A cordless screwdriver/drill and cutting pliers may be needed if you don't already have them.
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