Window coverings for sliding doors

[QuantumWeatherButterfly]

I have a window dilemma.

We want to put a large, 4m wide window/sliding door into our family room, so it opens up to the garden. However, we also need to put occasional overnight guests up in that room, so would need to be able to block out the light.

Given how occasional this will be, we don't really want the expense of integral blinds, and I'm not convinced curtains would work for a variety of reasons (mainly cost of curtains that wide, and the space they would take up to edges once opened), but I'm not sure what else to do.

Does anyone else have any ideas on what might work in this situation?

[MrsJoshNavidi]

Shutters?

[QuantumWeatherButterfly]

@MrsJoshNavidi They would look lovely, but I can't see how that would work when I want to slide the door open - wouldn't they stop me getting outside?

[Ginfilledcats]

Why not just get black out curtains?

[Ginfilledcats]

Ah just read your post again, where you do indeed explain why not curtains!! Doh!

Don't have to be hugely expensive though, we have a hugely wide living room windows and got our thermal/black out curtains in The Range or Dunelm

[QuantumWeatherButterfly]

@Ginfilledcats That's interesting! Do you mind me asking how wide your windows are, and how much space the curtains take up when open? I would actually really like curtains to soften the space, but given where the furniture will be, I'm not sure we have room.

[ParsnipToast]

I know you said not integral blinds, but I'm going to plug them anyway. We got them in ours and they are brilliant. We very rarely close them, which makes me even more happy we got them. Our view isn't blocked at all when not in use and there's nothing getting dusty.

[QuantumWeatherButterfly]

@ParsnipToast well, they're the neatest option, definitely, but I didn't think you could get them that wide? I'm not sure what configuration of panels we would have, but they would likely be at least 1.3m wide.

[QuantumWeatherButterfly]

All the blinds suppliers website I've been looking at are plugging vertical blinds. Can anyone persuade me they're not incredibly ugly?

[Notname]

We have exactly the same size sliding doors - 4m across, so two lanes of 2m. They’re already in, with no window covering, so integral blinds aren’t an option, and we don’t want curtains. We’re not overlooked but do need something to block the sun as can be dazzling. I’m thinking of getting two roller blinds, each 2m wide. Just priced them up on blonds2go (which we’ve used before and are great quality for the price) and they’re £100 each for 2m x 2m, so quite a cheap option. Just need to check whether recess fittings can fit to the top of the recess (ie above the doors) rather than just into the walls at the sides, as obv there’s nowhere to fix to in the middle of the doors.

[Notname]

*2 panes of 2m.

[Notname]

And blinds2go, not blonds2go!!

[Notname]

I’m not a fan of vertical blinds, they look too officey and may get twisted and tangled. I didn’t like roller blinds initially, but think they’d look ok and be less obtrusive than Roman blinds.

[snappybitch]

Just stick tinfoil on windows while you have guests.

[beanaseireann]

Roller blinds.

[MotherForkinShirtBalls]

Roman blind. We have a window in the living room that is 3.5m wide. We have two blinds across it. I don't like blackout lining so for the odd guest night I'd go for a heavy cotton lining.

[MarieG10]

We have 4.5m sliders and went for vertical blinds that you just pull back. They are brilliant and cost circa £140 from online retailer.

We didn't want the internal blinds as two friends have now had them fail and it is very expensive if they are out of warranty.

[weepingwillow22]

You could go for the continental european option and have shutters on the outside of the doors. Much more practical as they can be kept out of the way when not in use. In Europe I have also seen pull across fly screens made of some kind of black gauze which block the light on the inside.

[MissPollyPops]

We just have curtains at the back doors.. Which just get closed over at night in the winter. I've never really thought about them being there..

[MrsJoshNavidi]

I think you could get shutters that find back against the wall inside, but you'd need room for them.

But I was thinking of outside shutters like you get in France. It's usual there to open the windows to close the outside shutters at night. I used to get told off by the maman of the family I au paired for if I forgot to close the shutters.

[QuantumWeatherButterfly]

@Notname that's interesting. By mounting on the recess, do you mean effectively on the ceiling bit inside the window rebate?

Also, can you tell me whether the sliding bit of your door slides on the inside or the outside?

[QuantumWeatherButterfly]

@MarieG10 Are your vertical blinds ones that look like this?
www.blindsdirect.co.uk/product/tbd-supreme-blackout-white-vertical-blind
What you do if they fail is definitely one of my concerns about integral blinds.

[QuantumWeatherButterfly]

@MissPollyPops I do like the idea of curtains. Can I ask how much depth yours take up when they are open? I need to make sure they wouldn't obstruct the storage cupboards we'll have either side of the window when they are open, which will be the case 95% of the time. I do like the idea of curtains though!

[QuantumWeatherButterfly]

@MrsJoshNavidi @weepingwillow22 Ah! I see! Yes, I know exactly what you mean now. I'll definitely give it some thought. Trouble is, our garden is small, so I'm not sure we'd have space for them outside either. It's food for thought though - thank you!

[MissPollyPops]

They are about 8 or 9 inches out from the wall..

[Notname]

Hi yes I mean the ceiling of the recess. I’ve checked their morning and the blinds2go fittings can attached to that so think I will order some. The sliding bit of our doors is on the inside - the left hand pan slides across over the right hand one.