Curtain rail advice for an alcove window

[Jellycat77]

Hi,
I hope that someone can help. We've just had new windows fitted and I need some advice on what curtain rail to get. Our old windows were wooden and we had a curtain track for pencil pleat curtains screwed to the top of the window frame. However, we can't drill into the aluminium frames of the new windows. Also, there's not space to attach the curtain rail above the frame, due to the alcove style becoming narrower. I think the best place to fix the track would be to the side walls of the alcove. I know that pressure fix rails are available for curtain poles, but is there anything similar for curtain tracks? I'd really like to keep our pencil pleat curtains! I'd also like to keep the curtains as flushed to the window as possible, to retain their blackout function.
I hope someone can offer some advice!
Thanks!
Jellycat77

Could you attach something like this to the walls, and have the pole between the two? Would that get you close enough to the wall?

Beautiful windows and garden!

I have a similar setup and haven't yet found the perfect solution. I don't like the drawn back curtains to obscure too much of the window, and I think that will be a particular problem here. I think I'd consider a roller blind close to the window for blackout, and curtains outside the alcove for looks. I'll be interested to see other ideas.

Thank you SnowsFalling. If I went for that, I think I would need to hang curtain rings from the pole and then attach the pencil pleat curtains to those, if so then the curtains would hang too low and there would be quite a gap at the top. Unless there's another way to do this? I'm new to this!

Thanks MontyDonBlueScarf (love the name!). The blackout blind could work. I was really hoping to keep our current curtains though!

I’d have a Roman blind I think. You would just about have enough room above the window frame. You can have them 1cm narrower than the alcove and that gives you enough space above. As you have a wide frame, it would look fine in my view. Curtains will just take up a lot of room each side.

By room above the window, I meant to fix the top edge of the blind. It would hang down by around 6-8 ins. Use a white metal chain pull.

How wide is the heading tape? We had poles and pencil pleats for a bit.
Hook on bottom bit of heading tape (ours had 3 sets of hooks as possibilities) and then, yes, into a ring. Top of curtain was above the pole, iirc.

I can't really see from the photo, but I was thinking you might be able to hang your existing curtains completely outside the alcove, with the rail mounted on the wall. Whether that works or not would depend on how tall the window is and what, if anything, is underneath it. Do you have another picture from further away?

Wherever you put a pole, it’s difficult to fix. It will go straight across the window top and make it look cluttered. There appear to be vents too. I’d hide these behind blinds to make it neat but still give easy access to the vents. I think curtains would look dated on this window.

I bet you could glue a track to the frame with no more nails?

It is really really strong

Thank you everyone. Plenty of food for thought here - I really appreciate it!