Nobody shops for installation until the day they're standing on a chair holding a rod, a drill, and a growing suspicion. Fair enough. This page explains what professional curtain installation involves, why LA's housing stock makes it trickier than the YouTube version, and how it works when the installation comes free with curtains, drapes, and drapery made by our workroom.
What a professional install includes
Measurement continuity first: the crew installing your treatments works from the same measurement record taken in your home, so decisions made at the tape (mount height, projection, returns) execute exactly. Then the visible craft: hardware positions marked with a laser and leveled to the room rather than to a settling 1940s frame, anchors chosen for the actual wall, brackets set to carry the real fabric weight with margin, panels hung, and hem breaks verified against the floor as it exists, not as the plans imagined it. Last, the finishing nobody DIYs: steaming out transit creases and training the folds so the drapery photographs well on day one instead of week six.
LA walls, a field guide
The reason installation is a craft here: this city's walls were built across a century of changing methods. Pre-war plaster over lath wants pilot holes and load-rated anchors, never hammer-set plastics. Mid-century homes hide steel window frames and concrete lintels exactly where brackets want to go, so we come equipped for masonry. Newer construction is friendlier drywall but hides its studs in metal, and double-height great rooms add ladder logistics and fabric weights that demand blocking checks before a ceiling track goes up. None of this is exotic to a crew that installs daily; all of it is why the weekend version so often ends at a crooked rod and three extra holes.
Rods, tracks, and motors
We install the full hardware range: decorative rods with finials (measured so the finials clear the walls and the stack clears the glass), French-return rods that wrap light-tight, ceiling and wall-mount tracks for ripple fold work, bent tracks for bays and corner windows, and motorized tracks and tubes from Somfy and Rollease Acmeda with the programming and smart home pairing done before we leave. Shades ride along under the same roof: rollers, romans, and zebras get squared, tensioned, and tested as part of the same visit.
Why we give it away
Free installation isn't charity; it's quality control. A drape we sewed and someone else hung crooked is a bad photograph with our name on it, and a measurement error caught at install by the team that took the measurement is fixed in minutes instead of phone calls. Bundling measure, sew, and install under one roof is the whole business model, and the price you're quoted at the free measurement already contains all three. The broader picture of how we approach LA windows is in the complete guide.
Frequently asked questions
How much does curtain installation cost in Los Angeles?
With us, nothing: professional installation is included free with every order, everywhere in Los Angeles and Ventura counties, and so is the in-home measurement that precedes it. Elsewhere in the LA market, installation is typically billed per window or per hour, which is worth checking before comparing quotes. Our pricing works because installation isn't an add-on service for us; it's how the product gets finished.
Do you install curtains I bought somewhere else?
Our installation service exists for the treatments we make, and that's where it stays free. For panels you already own, the honest answer is case by case: if we're already installing an order in your home, adding a re-hang or a hardware swap to the visit is often easy, and we'll quote it fairly. As a standalone errand it depends on scope and schedule. Send photos of the panels and the wall and we'll answer straight rather than string you along.
How long does curtain installation take?
A typical room takes under an hour; a whole home usually finishes in a morning or an afternoon. The sequence per window: hardware positions marked and leveled, anchors set for the wall type, rod or track mounted, panels hung, hems checked against the actual floor, then steaming and fold-training. We schedule real windows of time rather than cable-company mysteries, and the crew cleans up drill dust before leaving.
Can you install curtain rods on plaster walls?
Yes, and half of LA's housing stock demands it. Plaster over lath doesn't hold like drywall: it cracks under enthusiasm and crumbles around cheap anchors. We locate the lath or studs, drill pilot holes, and use anchors rated for the load, oversizing the hardware where a heavy interlined drape will hang. Old-house walls are a craft specialty, not an obstacle; the same goes for tile returns, concrete lintels, and the steel-framed windows of mid-century builds.
How high should curtains be installed?
The standard answer is 4 to 6 inches above the frame; the better answer in most rooms is higher, roughly two thirds of the way to the ceiling or within a few inches of it, which visually raises the whole window. Crown molding needs about 2 inches of bracket clearance, and double-height rooms follow proportion rather than rules. Our installers make this call at the measurement with painter's tape on the wall, so you see the height before anyone drills. The full logic is in our measuring guide.
Do you install drapery tracks and motorized systems?
Yes: wall-mount and ceiling-mount tracks, bent tracks for bays and corners, and motorized systems from Somfy and Rollease Acmeda, battery or hardwired. Track work is less forgiving than rod work (a ceiling track telegraphs every wave in the drywall), so we laser-line, check blocking, and shim where the building needs the help. Motorized installs include programming, smart home pairing, and a walkthrough so the controls make sense before we leave.