Negotiating corners

90-degree radius curved track starts as a 30" straight track that is machine bent into a 12 inch radius. It is rigid track that you cannot bend yourself. At most, you can flex it only a few degrees. In addition, we have 135-degree tracking for soft octagonal angles. Intuitively, folks think of these as 45-degree tracks; but, we're the pocket-protector geeks who got A's in trigonometry while you were out having a life. Curved track is the only way to slide an entire curtain panel past a corner.

Quite often, you don't need a 90-degree radius curved track, at all, and can have 2 straight tracks meet at a right angle (Fig D) which is the cleanest way to handle any corner. The curtain straddles the right angle with a portion of the panel on one leg and the rest of the panel on the other leg. Because the right angle track is not continuous, the panel can draw to the right angle but will not flow past a right-angle configuration; but, you can always draw both legs of the panel to the right angle, which is often where you might draw it any ways. See Figure D.

Fig - A is an inside hang, gapped 4-5/8" from the actual corner while still catching the lip of the header beam for a ceiling mount.

Fig - B is the most common use of 90-degree-curved track, similar to Fig-A, but pressed flush against the inner corner support column.

Fig - C is an outside hang and is sometimes used if you have enough soffit for the curved track to clear the corner support column.

Fig - D is our favorite way to handle corners. It is a sleek and clean look using two straight tracks that come together at a hard right angle (or ANY angle). Curtains often straddle this type of angle with a portion of the curtain panel on one leg of the angle and the other portion on the adjacent leg. Sometimes there can be as much as a 12 inch gap in the tracking if the legs of the track are blocked by a large support column. Not to worry, simply bridge the gap with the curtain panel, itself.

Fig - E is a very rare circumstance where we form a 90-degree curve using two 135-degree curved tracks. This method is useful if you have large corner obstacles that need wide clearance (like a corner sconce or very large bungalow-style column cap).

When you can't ceiling mount your track

The tracking is intended to be ceiling mounted such the the screws go straight up though the track and into something solid; however, there are times where this is just not possible. To side mount the track, you have two viable options. The easiest is to side mount a 2in. x 2in. piece of wood and then under mount the track to the side-mounted wood. This puts the curtain 1.5" away from the surface your wood strip is mounted to and won't affect the flow of your curtain.

The other method is to drill the screws sideways through the track; however, you need to follow these instructions carefully. If you were to look down the butt end of the track, you will notice what appears to be "bunk beds." The top bunk holds the splice and the bottom bunk is where the carriers slide. Obviously, you don't want to obstruct the flow of the carriers so your screw needs to pass through the top bunk of the tracking. Also, you will need a "soft touch" and not tighten the screw so much that it begins to close the track channel. If you close the track channel, your curtain won't slide freely and you'll have a hard time figuring out why. Lastly, side mount to the very bottom edge of whatever you are side mounting to. The curtain wants to "festoon" or weave back and forth BOTH ways like an accordion when drawn. If you mount it any higher, the curtain can only half festoon to one side.