Many homeowners are installing French doors these days. They are great for adding light to a home and for giving a fairly clear an unobstructed view into your garden. However, as there is a lot of glass on French doors, people are sometimes concerned with both privacy issues and worries that rooms will heat up or bright sunlight will flood the room. Of course, both of these concerns are solved by installing French door blinds.
There are many different options when it comes to window treatments for French doors ranging from shutters to curtains for French doors. Your choice will probably depend in part on how much you are willing to spend on patio door blinds treatments and also on the overall look you are hoping to achieve. It will also depend on how much you are willing to pay for these treatments as some French blinds are considerably more expensive than others. Here are a few ideas on different possibilities for patio door blinds and French door window treatments.
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sells for just under $200 for one blind. Alternatively, click French door blinds
for a larger selection.Roll Up Blinds
There are many different types of roll up blinds for French doors you can install. They are usually relatively cheap, easy to install and fairly cost effective and time saving to maintain. Many roll up blinds come with a built in valance that will effectively hide the roller mechanism. These are great if you do not mind the fact that there is little variance obtainable with light flow into a room. In other words, the blinds need to be all the way down, half way up or all the way up. If your main concern is privacy at night, these would be a good option for patio doors with blinds.
Shutters
It is also possible to buy shutters to install on your French doors. These come in different sizes and styles. Prices vary quite a bit depending on what material they are made from. Wood shutters are not the cheapest shutters you can buy and they are not ideal for all situations; you should not install them if you live in a fairly humid area as humidity is usually not that good for wood.
Vinyl shutters are usually fairly cost effective and they can look great on French doors, especially white shutters as they have a very clean and crisp look to them that is very appealing when hung on French doors.
You can also buy faux wood shutters, although these are usually fairly heavy in comparison to shutters made from other material. This alone may make them less attractive to hang on French doors as you usually need to be able to open and close the shutters with ease when they are hung on doors.
The great thing with shutters is that you can readily control the light flow into the room and they provide you with great privacy when closed. They may not be that suitable as sliding glass door blinds however, and you may need to look at other alternatives that are more flexible if you are looking for sliding door blinds.
Vertical blinds is another popular option. They are usually fairly inexpensive and they add a nice, soft look to a room–particularly if you choose the vinyl type, as opposed to aluminum blinds.
While they look great, these type of French doors blinds do not provide you with the best privacy as you can often see in between the vertical slats even when the blinds are fully closed.
They are not that great at controlling the amount of light that comes in through the French doors either, though they are more controllable than roll up blinds.
The neat thing with vertical blinds is that they can be pulled to the sides of the doors with ease, making it very easy to open and close the doors as you need to. That is where they are a plus as sliding patio door blinds.
Curtain Panels
This is another option for these types of doors. Curtain panels are very easy to put up, and they can be pulled back to the side of the door during the day to allow optimum light to come into the room. When pulled shut at night they also provide you with privacy.
They do tend to get quite dusty and you have to take them down to wash them on a fairly regular basis. Depending on the type of fabric they are made from they can also fade fairly quickly, thus do need to be replaced more often than other types of blinds.
French door curtains are usually very decorative and can be used to add to a room’s décor very easily and can be a good choice for patio door window treatments.
These also work when hung in French windows though they are not as suitable for front door blinds for example. As they are usually fairly lightweight they often have to be fastened down so they do not blow about when the doors are opened and closed. They are cheap, come in a variety of different colors and styles and are usually fairly easy to clean. A good choice for blinds for patio doors.
French Doors with Built In Blinds
These are my top pick. Many French doors these days are built with a double layer of glass–including sliding French doors. You can now buy French doors with blinds built in between the two panels. The advantages of French patio doors with blinds built in are many. There is very little need for cleaning as the vacuum between the two panes of glass keep the blinds from getting dirty.
There are usually controls built into the door so that you can lower and raise the blinds, or so you can change the angle of the slats. Buying sliding glass doors with built in blinds already installed does not cost you any extra than buying the blinds separately and installing them over French doors. I can see little reason for not opting for patio doors with built in blinds aside from the fact that they may not be that easy to get to should they need repairing. This would be something to discuss before purchasing these french blinds. If the doors are sealed it may be difficult to get to the blinds, however the chances of something happening to the patio doors blinds to make them malfunction is fairly slim as these type of mini blinds usually last for years and operate without any problems developing.