I've made a pair of tab-top curtains from a flat bed sheet. The
curtain pole at present fits WITHIN the recess to the patio doors. Up
until now I have "made do" with a telescopic curtain rod from Wilko,
but these are far to small in diameter and thus look out of
proportion. But I prefer the look of a curtain within the recess, not
in front of it.

Wilko (and also Screwfix) do supply telescopic shower curtain rods
with a diameter of 22mm, but these are only available in white or
chrome. I want a wooden curtain pole. I have such a curtain pole from
the old house. It's in two pieces with a double-ended screw in the
middle.

So how could I modify this wooden pole to make it telescopic so that
it springs out within the recess and holds itself in place? NB: The
new curtains are very lightweight, and the current Wilko thin
telescopic pole holds them perfectly adequately.

I reckon, if one bought a couple of large cupboard knobs and drilled
them out to take the pole (approx 25mm dia), then shortened the wooden
pole just a tad so that there was a gap of, say, 10mm inside the knob,
I could then insert a small compression spring inside the knob so that
the pole butts up against it. I would only need this at one end. The
other end could just press against the plaster, inside its knob. Or
maybe insert a sprig (sprig, not spring) in the end to bite into the
plaster a tad. So the end result would be:

Wall -- compression spring -- pole -- sprig -- wall. The only
point of the drilled-out knobs is to hide the ends. These would be a
fairly tight fit around the pole and thus wouldn't need any fixing.

To install, slide the pole inside the sprung end and push hard to
compress the spring. Then slide the pole into the horizontal position
and release the pressure. The spring expands and holds the pole!

Anyone got any better ideas? And where might I locate a suitable
spring?

MM