How to Hang a Shower Curtain (with tension rod)

Before my son, Eric, went off to college, I asked him to hang a new shower curtain in his bathroom. I figured it was a good idea to change out the old one which was a bit dirty and moldy at the bottom. By the way, if it was a fabric shower curtain I probably could have just run it through the washing machine, but it wasn’t so I needed to change it out for a new one.

When he hung the shower curtain like this, I realized that I had never taught him the right way to install a shower curtain. Since he was going away to school, I prepared a tutorial to help him, and others who are installing a single shower curtain for the first time.

This is how not to install a shower curtain!

Below, I’ll show you the steps in adding a shower curtain tension rod, shower curtain hooks, and how to place it at the right height.

Here are a variety of materials that I personally like for the job. I will include affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. These that I’ve picked out are affordable options. When decorating your bathroom, a little bit of money can go a long way to making your entire bathroom look great.

Funny Shower Curtains
Get Naked Shower Curtains
Art Inspired Shower Curtains
Preppy Shower Curtains
Sports Themed Shower Curtains
Neutral Shower Curtains
University Themed Shower Curtains
Hook Style Curtain Rings
Closed Loop Style Curtain Rings
Tension Rods in Different Colors

Here’s a video tutorial of the process:

Adding Shower Curtain Hooks:

There are a few different types of shower curtain hooks. In the video, you’ll see that I show two of these.

One is an S-shaped type of hook that is open on one end. This type of hood is very easy to install. You just put the shower hook through the holes at the top of the shower curtain. Every regular shower curtain has these holes placed at an equal distance from one end of the curtain to the other. Shower hooks work easily and quickly since the only thing you have to do is slide them through the hole and over the curtain rod.

Curtain rings are closed loops. They can be round or they can have a shape to them, like these. I find that the best way to install these closed curtain rings is to attach them to the shower curtain. If you look at your standard tension rod, which is what I always use, you’ll see that there’s an end cap at the end of the rod. You can simply twist this end cap off and slide the shower curtain hooks onto the tension curtain rod.

closed hooks for installing shower curtain

Tension Shower Curtain Rods:

I find tension shower curtain rods to be the easiest to work with and install. They come in different color options to match your bathroom décor. They don’t cost a lot of money, and are so easy to use. You don’t need any special equipment, not even a tape measure! Also you can easily adjust where you place the tension rod, so that you can adjust the height of the shower curtain as needed.

The first thing you’ll do is to extend the rod to both ends of the tub, basically from one wall to the other. You’ll hold the rod at a bit of an angle because once you tighten the rod, you’ll want to push it up into place and have it fit securely.

Once you have the rod pulled out to the proper distance, you’ll twist one end of the rod in the opposite direction . This will create tension inside the rod and cause it to lock in place. Play with the curtain rod and test this out before you put it up, so that you can see which side is the one that you’ll twist and you’ll get a feel for how it locks into place.

You may have to go through the process a few times in order to get it as snug as you’d like. But even though it may take these few tries, I think that the tension shower rods are a great idea. Especially when contrasted with wall mounted traditional shower curtain rods. You don’t have to drill holes or use a stud finder in order to find stud support. Wall mounted curtain rods that damage the wall. The one time that wall mounted shower rods are useful are when you want to install a curved shower rod in a small bathroom shower area.

Shower Curtain Height:

I set up my shower curtain rod so that the curtain hangs one to two inches from the bottom of the tub. As you can see in the video, I had to stand on the top of the tub in order to place the rod at the right height.

Shower Curtain Liner:

I didn’t install a shower curtain liner in my video, however, adding a shower liner is easy. You’ll just put it together with the drapery panel. Then, put the shower curtain hooks through both of them at the same time.

When you do take a shower, you’ll put the plastic liner on the inside of the tub. Leave the decorative shower curtain on the outside. This way, the liner prevents water from getting outside of the shower stalls. It serves as a splash guard. Simultaneously, by letting the decorative shower curtain hang on the outside of the shower, you protect it from splashing water from your hot shower. This is the perfect solution to avoid water damage to your normal shower curtain and keep water off of your bathroom floor.

Shower Curtain Material:

You have options here. You can choose fabric, plastic, polyester, and even silk or satin (use those for decoration primarily and not for everyday use because they get ruined so easily).

Plastic may look a bit cheaper than fabric but you can often find more fun prints and colors and they’re less expensive typically so you can use them for a year and then change out your style next year.

Here’s how fabric looks, with a hookless shower curtain.

Waffle weave is pretty neutral, and a fabric choice I tend to like, here’s what that looks like.

Extras:

Different Sizes:

Interested in extra long liners, or extra long shower curtain sizes?

Standard shower curtain heights are 72 inches. They are also 72 inches wide.

Long curtains exceed the standard sizes and go to 84″ or 96″ heights.

The length of your shower curtain may be limited by the height of the ceiling in your bathroom, so keep that in mind too.

Long shower curtains are a good option if you have particularly high ceilings and want a longer visual effect that the standard shower curtain length can’t provide.

Last year I wanted to make my guest bathroom more decorative, since we don’t have too many overnight guests but we do have visitors to the house using that bathroom. So I added a double shower curtain. I was using these just as decorative elements and they looked nice.