Ideas for Window Treatments for French Doors
- Your lighting needs and privacy considerations must be examined when selecting door shades or blinds for your French doors. If you will be raising the shades and lowering them frequently, then you will need to use shades or blinds that will not become tangled on the handles. If you plan to always leave the shade pulled all the way down, it would be wise to order some hold-down brackets. These can be custom ordered when you purchase the doors and are installed on the bottom of the doors to help keep the shades down and in place.
- Almost any type of blind looks nice on a French door except vertical blinds. The doors are too narrow to really display the blinds well. Mini-blinds look very attractive on French doors and come in a variety of styles. The wood blinds look very elegant on stained wood doors. Select blinds that are not very deep. A one-inch wood mini-blind would be perfect.
- Different types of shades are available for French doors, including woven wooden shades, roller shades, roman shades, pleated shades and sheer shades. Sheer shades are not a good idea for French doors on a bedroom, outside doors or anywhere else where you might want to have privacy. Pleated shades or fabric roller shades look nice on French doors that are part of a bedroom suite. If you get the standard roll option on the roller shade instead of the reverse roll option, then the shade will be able to hang flush against the doors. Any soft shade that hangs close against the doors would be a good choice.
- If you install curtains or draperies, you do not have to cover the French doors at all. Install a curtain rod all the way across the top of the door, and hang some drapes that accent the colors already in the room. During the day, you can tie the drapes back to show off the French door and to let light into the room. Drop the curtains at night for privacy. You can also install curtain brackets right onto the tops and bottoms of the doors if you prefer.
