I have French doors in my room here in LA, that go directly outside onto the street. I wanted to attach blackout curtains to ensure that no one could look in on me at night, and got IKEA curtains and curtain rods to go with them.
However, the rods are extendable/adjustable by a point in the middle where a smaller rod goes into a bigger rod. This protrusion causes a lot of pain when closing the curtains, trying to get the right curtain over the bump in the middle.
I have tried to remedy this by attaching masking tape around this point, hoping for a smoother glide, but alas it does not help much. I used to try to yank the curtain over in one smooth motion. However, I found that stopping at that point and slowly pushing up the curtain to go around the bump helps, but it’s incredibly annoying.