Normally, I wouldn't bother to write up a page about changing the curtain rods in the house. After all, there is little in the way of going eco-friendly when it comes to curtain rods. Unless, of course, you adopt the "found object" aspect and use old fishing rods, old broom handles, or some other long thin thing that you can hang cloth from.

Why am I showing you images of simple, straight-forward curtain rods? Because I foolishly ordered the wrong size (not quite long enough) and I didn't want to waste the transportation energy to return them to the retailer and wait for replacements (they had been shipped to me and that would mean also energy to be shipped a second time).

And yet, you are looking at images of fully functional curtain rods. I dealt with this by taking the end piece (which is hollow so the middle can slide and be adjusted to the correct length) with me to the local home improvement store (I use Lowes.) and finding a wooden dowel rod that fit snugly inside it. In this case it is a 3/4-inch dowel rod. I bought 2 since I had 2 rods to fix. Then off to the paint aisle for a can of Satin Nickel spray paint.

I spray painted both dowel rods all the way around, paying special attention to the center section because that is the most visible. It took 24 hours for the rods to dry/set completely.

All that was left was to insert the dowel into the two (2) ends provided and install the curtain rods. (I put the unused center cylinders into the metal recycling pile.)

Viola! I made lemonade from my lemons. (And in the process ended up with stronger rods because the center dowel rod section is solid and extends quite a way into each end.)