Curtain Rod With Sugru and Magnets

I needed to cover the front window of our new house. I wanted to use tenugui Japanese dish towels and I didn't want to have to sew anything, if possible. And I wanted it to be temporary so I can do something nicer later without having holes in the door. I gathered these materials:

1. Tenugui Towels: $8.00 each from Kyoto Collection
2. Small saw
3. 1/2 inch oak dowel: about $2.00
4. Sand paper
5. Minwax Wood Finishing Cloths -- these stain and seal the wood: about $4.00 (used 1 of 8)
6. Black Sugru: $14 for a package of 3 at Target (used 2)
7. Neodymium magnets 1/2”: about $6.00 at hardware store (package of 6)
8. Café rod rings with clips: about $6.00 from Amazon
9. Rod brackets: about $3.00 at Walmart

1. Cut dowel to length.
2. Sand. After sanding, the 1/2" dowel fit perfectly into the 7/16" café rod bracket.
3. Stain and let dry one hour. The Minwax Wood Finishing Cloths Maple Color worked well for a dowel. You just pull out a cloth and rub it over the dowel. Cleans up with soap and water. One coat was adequate.

1. Measure and place 4 rounds of Sugru on door -- 2 at each end where you want brackets to be.
2. Put cones of Sugru on magnets and press onto each round on door.
3. Wait 24 hours for Sugru to cure. (Seriously. Don't get anything metal near it while it's still curing because the magnet will pull out of the Sugru!)

I originally tried it with 1 magnet on each side but with the rings and curtains on, it didn't hold. Now using 2 on each end (plus one more after mounted).

1. I just folded the top over until the towel was the length I wanted. Then I steamed a crease in it because I don't have an iron! Not bothering with washing or hemming. But you could if you wanted a more polished look.
2. Clip on the rings and place over the rod. I put 3 on each cloth. I might use smaller rings and more of them if I did it again. The rings are pretty heavy.
3. Bend brackets so that the flat surfaces are parallel and contact as much of the magnets as possible.
4. Place rod in brackets.
5. Put brackets on magnets.
6. Add another magnet on top of bracket to make a stronger hold.

This is a very forgiving process since everything can be moved around to make the curtains hang straight. You could just use Sugru to make or hang brackets for the dowel, but this way you can make adjustments easily.

I started with 1 magnet mounted on the door per bracket but 2 were needed to hold rod with the rings on. The rings were heaver than I realized and I added a 3rd magnet on each side to make the rod steadier.