Creative and Practical Uses for Tension Rods Around the Home
Hang Your Pots and Pans
We don’t need to remind you that pots and pans can be a challenge in the kitchen. Pots and pans rarely stack neatly, necessitating the filling of entire cabinets—not to mention the challenge of grabbing the desired one from beneath a pile of saucepans and frying pans. However, one home improvement trick that you likely haven’t thought of is hanging up your pots and pans instead.
We hung these on a tension rod to organize your kitchen cupboards and ensure you always know where your copper saucepan is when you need it. Additionally, it adds a unique touch to your kitchen.
Organize Your Accessories
What could possibly suck more than losing your favorite necklace somewhere in your bedroom? However, the situation becomes even more distressing when you manage to locate your beloved necklace only to find it in a tangled mess! So keeping your accessories organized is crucial—you want to avoid clutter and enjoy your pieces more easily. You don’t need to invest in expensive jewelry boxes or tailor-made storage for your ties and belts, however.
Simply hang these accessories from the rod in your bedroom or closet to ensure their safety. They will look stylish when displayed, ensuring you always know where to find them.
Design Your Own Headboard
We probably don’t need to tell you that headboards are super pricey. They are a charming addition to the bedroom; however, why are you required to pay for a mere scrap of fabric? However, you don’t have to shell out that much money. If you plan to visit Home Depot next time, you have the option to make your own headboard using a tension rod and your preferred fabric.
You could also consider draping an additional rug across the tension rod to add an additional visual element. You have the freedom to choose from the most basic version to the most extravagant one.
Hang Your Plants
You probably have them outside, but what about the inside? Whether you are exploring exotic houseplants or seeking the ideal indoor herb garden, you can always discover the most effective and straightforward method for keeping plants off the floor in your home. Additionally, you don’t require any specialized DIY skills! You can easily bring this home improvement hack into your life.
Once you’ve purchased a tension rod and hooks from Home Depot, feel free to place it wherever you desire. But we would recommend placing it next to a window (where plants gain the critical natural light).
Make a Room Divider
Now, if you live in a big city, it’s likely that your apartment is spacious and free-range. You can use that space for various purposes such as your bedroom, living room, dining room, and more. One way to split that wide-open space is with a room divider—but these can get really pricey, even if you go to stores like Home Depot and Lowe’s. For this reason, it may be worth yours instead.
This hack doesn’t require slick DIY skills—simply use tension rods to create your own room dividers with thrifted fabric, making for the perfect affordable home upgrade to open-plan living.
Add Vertical Storage
Limited floor space may lead you to believe that there is no room for additional storage. However, most people fail to realize that they have a very vertical personality that is rarely used, and this vertical personality can serve as an excellent space for storage, organization, and a little bit of decoration. Luckily, this home improvement hack only requires a high-tension from Lowe’s, and a few old dishes wouldn’t hurt either.
Drill holes in the dishes, then flip the tension rod upside down, sliding the dishes onto the rod to create a home for your knick-knacks or even remote controls.
Make Party Decorations
If you are a hostess with the most and enjoy throwing extravagant dinner parties for friends, there is a strong possibility that you are always in search of trying to outdo yourself. What if you want the most little-kid-dance-party decoration of them all, though? You can probably find it in a tension rod! Yes, you can hang them wherever you want by hanging tension rods from the ceiling or between walls. You can truly decorate them however you want.
You have the ability to suspend objects from them, drape items around them, and create beautiful decorations above your visitors’ heads. An additional benefit is their effortless removal.
Add Some Tub Helpers
If you have children, you will know that bathtime is a chore. While there is the rare child who adores bathtime and sits motionless for you to wash their hair, the majority of children require distractions from toys and rubber duckies. This makes your bathroom a noisy and clutter-filled space. Instead, why not use a tension rod and some tub helpers to neatly organize everything?
You’re still in the same location, prepared to start work, but they’ve left the rest of your bathroom open for business.
Hang up Your Christmas Stockings
In fact, Christmas would not be Christmas without stockings adorning the mantel, would it? However, not all lovebirds have the ability to hang stockings, and some even lack a mantelpiece. In this situation, a tension rod will prove to be an invaluable asset. You can place this anywhere, whether it’s above your fireplace or on the wall above your couch. That way, you can just drape your stockings directly over the tension rod.
The best part about this is none of it will leave a mark on your holiday decor. Using a tension rod eliminates the need for drilling or handyman skills.
Easily Dry Your Clothes
No one likes doing laundry, am I right? To add insult to injury, wash them and then come to wait for a few days for them to dry, especially if you do not have a proper airing space for your clothes. You can make one, though. To implement this house renovation hack, place a pair of tension rods between two walls of your home or apartment.
You can then leave your laundry to dry on rods in a room with oxygen. And it should take a fraction of the time.
Hang a Gallery Wall
If you live in a rental home or apartment, it’s likely that your landlord has taken immediate action to prevent any damage to the walls. This leaves minimal space for customization, potentially leading to an unpleasant experience. Fortunately, there is a simple method to implement your home improvement ideas without the need for a drill—all you need is a tension rod from Lowe’s or Home Depot.
Once you install this tension rod, you can hang picture frames from it to create the gallery wall of your dreams. This can be done even if you are not renting.
Build a Paper Towel Rack
The worst thing is spilling something in the kitchen and forgetting where you put the paper towels. Before long, the spill has spread and the paper towels are useless. Drilling paper towel racks is an essential tool, making it one of the best DIY tension rod hacks we’ve ever seen.
The beneficial thing about a tension rod is it works at any length, so you can shove it into a small, unused cupboard and slide the paper towels into it. You can then use it whenever you need it.
Organize Your Bags
If you own many bags and purses, we’ll assume you want to do something special for them. How many of you put them in the back of your closet to avoid distraction? Now, it’s time to place some orders, and a tension rod from Home Depot or Lowe’s will suffice.
You can put a tension rod in your closet, then hang your purses from that rod, and finally give your purses the room they really need and deserve in your closet.
Make a Mug Display
If starting your day without a regular ol’ cup of Joe is impossible, you may have even carved out a corner of your kitchen specifically for a coffee station. Sure, you could toss your coffee mugs in a cupboard, but even better—why not show off your mugs with a display? Simply apply some DIY magic to transform your ordinary space into a visually stunning display that will be a sight to behold.
This is an area where you have the freedom to express yourself creatively. You can either showcase your matching mugs or experiment with different colors and designs to make them stand out.
Create a Shoe Rack
Sure, there’s always the option to hit up Lowes or the Home Depot for a fresh shoe rack, but there’s just no denying that dedicated products tend to be pricey. Before you know it, you’ve spent $100 on a rack that won’t be visible once you’ve added your shoes! However, what if we told you that there is a far more cost-effective DIY solution that can be used instead of an actual shoe rack?
You can build your very own shoe rack in your closet by stacking a few cheap tension rods on top of each other. You might even have a little extra room for your shoes, as they will now be able to fit inside the closet.
Organize Your Scarves
You probably crammed this accessory in a drawer or behind some clothes in your closet until you need one again if you are a scarf lover. This, however, is just inviting your scarves, like a bunch of feral cats, to wrestle and form a knotted ball that will mess up your day when you next want to grab one to warm yourself against a cold winter’s day. Take yourself to Home Depot instead.
Installing a tension rod in your closet allows you to organize and protect your scarves from damage. Just wrap them around the tension rod and move on with your life!
Build a Private Cat Bed
Cats are fickle creatures. And while you could easily drop a significant amount of cash on a brand new bed for them, chances are high that they’re still sleeping above your kitchen cabinets or under the end table next to your sofa. If that’s how it works for your cat, then just let them be. Actually, you could do one better and make that side table a mini cat lair.
Transform the legs into scratching posts and add a tension rod to give the entire area more privacy, and your cat will have its own wardrobe suite—complete with a surprise curtain!
Organize Your Spices
Have you ever wished your kitchen cupboards—optionally, your cupboards—were bigger? When two shelves won’t do, why not cut them in half for double the space? If you decide to install tension rods in the center of your shelves, that is exactly what you can do. This solution is ideal for individuals seeking to maintain their spices and herbs in an orderly manner, preventing them from being scattered to the rear of the cabinet.
With the spice jars stacked on the tension rod, you can always see them (and they’re good to go).
Add Storage to Your Shower Curtain
Shower rooms are the natural habitat for tension rods. As the average person only uses it when it’s time to hang up a shower curtain, more and more people don’t even realize that there is a ton of additional steps required to make this shower curtain anything but ordinary. In fact, you can get more storage without having to pick up a whole new curtain from Home Depot.
Attach or sew clear pockets directly onto the shower curtain, creating ample space for additional bottles, razors, slippers, and other items. You will have everything at your disposal.
Tension Rod Bookshelf
Are you a bookworm? Regardless of if you like fantasy, cookbooks, or non-fiction, you need a place to store those books. But your typical home book shelf can take up lots of space and is plain looking to the eye, so have fun with this DIY shelf utilizing a tension rod. Once installed, it will look much more impressive and unique! Imagine a book shelf that extends from the ceiling to the floor. It sounds impressive, doesn’t it?
You only need two tension rods to install your preferred shelves. Despite its simplicity, this trick can significantly transform your home.
Create Barriers for Pets and Kids
Anyone who has ever tried to corral a squirmy toddler or mischief-making puppy knows this: you must always have your eyes on them to prevent them from getting where they don’t belong. But if you want a little more assurance, then picking up a few tension rods from Lowe’s or Home Depot may be in your best interests anyway. Come on, you can build your own baby gates or puppy gates exactly where you need them.
However, their temporary nature makes them ideal for households that frequently move from one room to another. And you can shift them based on where you are in that moment.
Make a Four-Poster Bed
If you’re looking at your bedroom and wondering how to enhance the decor, may we suggest turning your mattress into a four-poster? Just close the drapes and wrap yourself in the fabric to instantly transform your bedroom into a fantasy world. Naturally, a brand-new four-poster bed will be very expensive, but you can do it yourself for next to nothing.
All you need to do is get some tension rods to serve as the top curtain lines. You can then cover it with whatever fabric you want!
Make a Gift-Wrapping Station
If your children have birthday parties every weekend or you simply enjoy spending time wrapping gifts for those you care about, a gift-wrapping station can be a permanent addition. Sure, you can purchase a piece of furniture from the Home Depot to do this, but it is far more economical to handle this home improvement project yourself. Or rather than going to a store, turn the back of a door in your house into a gift-wrapping station.
Attach a few tension rods to the inside of the door, slide on some wrapping paper, and hang baskets for your small gift tags and numerous bright ribbons.
Create Closet Doors
Anyone who has lived in a tiny home or an apartment will attest to the fact that having a good closet can be incredibly beneficial. This can help to cut down on the mess in your bedroom and minimize heavy, large furniture in your sleeping area. Closets like those shown below can be quite roomy, but even having doors takes up a lot of space. If your closet is anywhere near where you plan to dress, curtains in the closet doors may be your best option (storage space featured above).
You can mount a tension rod in the door frame with your choice of stretched-in drapes to create a space-saving solution that doesn’t actually encroach on your real bedroom. It’s the perfect alternative.
Organize Your Chords
We all have that one drawer or box at home that holds an embarrassing number of chords. When we need to search for something in that drawer or box, it’s truly a nightmare! Why not use tension rods to keep them organized? Tension rods come in various sizes, allowing you to customize your chord-hanger to your desired size. Either way, it keeps those accessories within simple reach.
Well, it will come still with one more set of those that you have to untangle, but you have to do that one more time before you reach! like this! But it’ll be worth it.
Cover Up Ugly Tables
Every home needs at least a couple of tables. These tables can be used as dining room tables, home office desks, and so on. If you cannot buy a new table at Lowe’s or Home Depot but want a change, try draping the ugly undersides. This can look so stylish and give the room an immediate sense of warmth.
You don’t even need to be skilled at DIY to accomplish this. You can just install a tension rod underneath the table then thread some curtains of your choice through.
Add Privacy to a Doorway
Many houses and flats have doorways with no doors. More often than not, this is a space saving option since doors tend to occupy a whole lot of space. Naturally, you have extremely limited privacy without a door, but a tension rod could remedy that. Rather than leaving the space open, you could use a fabric curtain or drape there instead.
Simply place the tension rod between the door frame and hang from your material. Alternatively, you can attach a hook to hold the fabric back when you want to open the space.
Organize Your Shower
Shower caddies are designed for students, but placing your shampoo bottles on the floor is a risky practice, particularly as you age. How exactly do you organize a shower? Frustrating, right? Well, you might be interested to learn that an upside-down tension rod could be the fix you need. Plastering the tension rod between the floor and ceiling provides ample space for hanging baskets and racks.
Once you have relocated the remaining toiletries to this area, you can utilize this additional space to systematically arrange and maintain everything in a relatively orderly manner. It will also dramatically lower the odds of you falling in the shower.
Organize Your Laundry Room
Consequently, no one finds the washers enjoyable. It’s a time-consuming and tedious process, and finding a place to neatly fold your clothes in such small areas can be quite challenging. A tension rod or two is the best way to maximize Wash Day. Put these on your wall; this way you can hang all your dry clothes and prep for steaming.
It’s also an excellent place to hang and dry larger items, such as towelsIn no time at all, your laundry day will be completed faster than you can say “washing powder”.r.
Make Roman Shades
In the end, a home has to have some kind of privacy, and if you would rather not have your neighbors peering into your living room when you are binging on soap operas, it is best to opt for a drape or a blind. Indeed, anyone who has ever attempted to purchase these products in the past will understand that they are inexpensive—even on sale shipping charges. However, it’s worth noting that you have the ability to DIY Roman shading at home.
YouTube/A Square Pillow Isn’t Square!
You can create a Roman blind effect by adding tension rods between your windows and draping the fabric over them. The added perk is that you can pick your own shade and design.
Create a Private Hideout
Plenty of kids will ask their parents for a bunk bed, but after a few years that same child will no longer want or need one. Teenagers tend to withdraw into their rooms, isolating themselves from their surroundings, particularly their parents. With this home improvement hack, which only costs the price of a tension rod and some fabric, you can provide them with a private space.
The bottom of the bunk bed can then be transformed into a small secret space, allowing your teen to express their teenage angst in solitude. Pretty neat, right?
Make a Paper Workbench Dispenser
If you possess a crafty personality, your joy likely stems from crafting items and visiting craft stores to stock up on essentials. Now, who among you has diligently packed everything into an overflowing cupboard? This can be messy and could ruin your supplies in the process – which is why this tension rod hack may work better for you. To be fair, you could make your own DIY paper workbench dispenser.
This way, you can store your craft paper in a wrinkle-free and damage-free manner and ensure it is ready when you need it. You can even store it in its entirety to keep track of the remaining quantity!
Create a Kitchen Towel Rack
We probably have items lurking in our kitchens—things we use several times a day. As a result, they appear silly to crate away, so they remain on your countertop and appear disorganized and cluttered. To address this issue, you can purchase a low-cost tension rod from Home Depot or Lowe’s and use it to suspend kitchen towels over your kitchen equipment. Then they’ll be organized, yet available.
Anything goes on this rack, but we wouldn’t be able to do without dishcloths, chopping boards, and cutlery on it—wwelcome to use whenever you need it.
Make a Cling Wrap Holder
When you hate wasting food (and you should hate it), you probably use a bunch of cling wrap. However, nothing compares to the agony of rummaging through your kitchen cupboards to find the cling wrap box. Then why don’t you just have it easily accessible on your website? You can purchase a tension rod from any home depot to create your own cling wrap holder.
Feel free to place it any place you want, yet as long as you slip the television or cling cover over the tension pole, you must be all set whenever your leftover components are ready to be stored.
Install Extra Curtains
Okay, this is kind of more of a no-brainer, but why not place a tension rod anywhere in your home for more curtains and drapery? That’s what tension rods were made for, and they’re ideal for renters who don’t want to damage their landlord’s property. Not to mention, this allows you to cover windows that may not normally have drapes or to make it appear as though you have more windows than you actually do.
Using tension rods to hang drapes is the easiest method. You also get the added benefit of being able to select new and fresh color combinations and designs.
Jazz up Your Kitchen Windows
Show of hands: Who ignores your kitchen windows? You’re not alone. People rarely clean or nurture their kitchen windows, as they are not there for long periods of time, which leaves the place quite cold and unloved. However, you don’t need to purchase expensive drapes or blinds to spruce up your kitchen window. Instead, you could use a tension rod and some fabric you like.
By using more than one tension rod, you can actually create an entire feature that will catch your eye and fascinate your space. And you can keep going, as boldly as you like.
