Do you have folding/sliding doors in modern room? Tell me how you stop the room feeling soulless at night

[YesImSinister]

We recently moved into house with a big set (5 metres) of folding sliding doors leading on tot he garden. All was great in the summer and long summer evenings. But now it is getting dark earlier, it is making the room feel soulless, as there is just a huge expanse of reflection on the glass (as we don't have blinds or any window dressings).

What do other people do to overcome this? As the doors are already in situ we cannot have integral blinds installed. We can't have curtains, as it would spoil the sleek, modern look of the room. And there is no space above them for blinds to be attached.

Any ideas or inspiration for me?

Thanks

[NorkyButNice]

All the houses I've seen recently with big doors leading into the garden (am househunting so quite a few), have had lighting in the garden which is switched on at night stopping the reflection issue you have.

Do you have any greenery or table/chairs etc outside the window?

[YesImSinister]

We have decking outside Norky. I suppose we could put lights in that to stop the reflection issue.
Great idea - thanks.

[jeanjeannie]

Interesting - as DP has just been asked by two clients to remove them for just the reason you've stated. They'd bought the houses with them already in....hated the fact they couldn't do blinds/curtains.

They've also had a ventilation problem as they had no other windows. How do you get over that? or have you other windows?

[thehairybabysmum]

Can you move your furniture so sofa is positioned in front of them looking the other way during the winter?

[titchy]

why can't you have curtains? Plain ones wouldn't detract from the modernn feel fo the room. Or vertical blinds using a horizontal attachment if you can't fit one at the top of the doors.

[chimchar]

glad you posted this...we are just coming to the end of our extension and have put in 3 m wide doors...this has been on my mind as to how top deal with it....

i have seen is a few magazines individual roller/roman binds over each panel, but not really sure if it'll work...i don't think i have space to hang them...

hmmm. watching with interest (and hoping for inspiration!)

[serenity]

Damn. Can't find a decent picture, but IKEA (and other reputable suppliers I'm sure!) do panel curtains which work really well in the situation you describe. The system they hang with can be fixed directly to the ceiling, so work where you have floor to ceiling sliding doors.

Example

Disclaimer: Yes I work for IKEA, and in fact textiles is my department

[serenity]

Not ours, but shows patio in a modern room

[YesImSinister]

Thanks for all the advice and suggestions everyone.

JeanJeannie - that is very interesting that your DH has been asked to remove them. They are great in the summer, but so unhomely now. We do have two other windows in the room and 3 Velux roof windows, so we are fine for ventilation.

Titchy - we are going to reconsider curtains, but I do feel that due to the expanse they have to cover, the amount of material that would be gathered and bunched up when the curtains are open to expose the windows would just bulky and at odds to the sharp lines of the room. But we will def look into it.
As fir vertical blinds, I am not keen on these - had them across our double French doors in our old house and the dog was forever getting caught in the chain on the bottom. I also caught a stiletto heel on it once and ended up in plaster!

TheHairyBabysMum - (love your name btw). Good suggestion re moving sofa, but as the windows are so long it is not just the sofa in front of them, but the dining table too. It is like looking out into a black abyss when eating dinner atm!

ChimChar - hopefully we can both find a solution that works

Serenity - oh, I need to pick your brains on the Kvartal system. Have lots of questions, so will put in a separate post.

[YesImSinister]

Serenity - this is our set up:
Room is approx 7m wide, so 1 metre wall each side of the folding sliding doors. The doors are not floor to ceiling (about 50cm above them is ceiling) and they are recessed.

We can't put any vertical window dressing solution into the recessed window area as it will block too much of the windows when not drawn closed.

So if we use Kvartal, it will need to run the whole width of the room. I was trying to figure out last night how it might work, but there wasn't enough info on the Ikea website.

The doors are 5m wide, therefore we would need 8 panel curtains at least (4 each side). Could you hang that many panels on just one triple track? (I envisage one track having 2 panels curtains each side, therefore these would come out 120cm from side walls of room when draw open).

A couple of other questions I have about Kvartal:

• can it be hung outwards from the wall? Our ceiling has a huge height differential between each side of the room (about 10cm), so I am not sure if the track could be attached successfully to it.
• how far does the track stick out from the wall? (I couldn't see width dimensions of the track online). We currently have a TV in one of the corners. We could move it forward a little to accommodate track and panels, but not much.

Hope the above all makes sense!

[midnightexpress]

This is going to sound hideous, but it actually looks very nice. My SIL has a sort of curtain made out of loads of individual threads - I'm really not explaining this very well - it's hard to describe. Like those flappy plastic strips you get in some places to keep the flies out but stringy threads instead of plastic strips. It's a nice greeny blue colour. I thought she got it at Ikea, but I can't see it on the website.

This isn't going well.

Anyway, it cuts the reflection, gives a bit of privacy, and she can open the doors in the summer and leave the curtain closed so flies don't come in the house. It doesn't exclude much light either.

[noddyholder]

I don't have them atm but a friend does and she has nothing and it feels fine.Her garden is beautifully lit at night though and that makes it feel less bare iygwim

[YesImSinister]

MidnightExpress - I suggested one of the old-fashioned bead curtains to DH last night

Your SIL's sounds much nicer than the ones I remember from the 70s though. Any chance you could ask her where she got it?

Ability to stop flies coming in would be good, as this summer we realised what is really meant when they promote such doors as "bringing the outside in" - yes, all the damn bugs, flies and wasps

[noddyholder]

habitat do a silver or black fringed curtain.You might need a couple though for doors

[YesImSinister]

Midnight Express - just did a quick Google. Is this similar to what your SIL has?

[YesImSinister]

Noddy - that is good to know about your friend. I will also check out the Habitat curtains. Thanks.

[serenity]

Midnightexpress - the thing you're talking about is in the children's department. I don't think it's on the website, but it's still instore. No clue what it's called though!

YesImSinister - cracks knuckles Ok. Not at work (obviously) so I'll do my best from memory!

oom is approx 7m wide, so 1 metre wall each side of the folding sliding doors. The doors are not floor to ceiling (about 50cm above them is ceiling) and they are recessed.

We can't put any vertical window dressing solution into the recessed window area as it will block too much of the windows when not drawn closed.

So if we use Kvartal, it will need to run the whole width of the room. I was trying to figure out last night how it might work, but there wasn't enough info on the Ikea website.

The doors are 5m wide, therefore we would need 8 panel curtains at least (4 each side). Could you hang that many panels on just one triple track? (I envisage one track having 2 panels curtains each side, therefore these would come out 120cm from side walls of room when draw open).

Right. The tracks are 140cm long, but they can be joined together, so you can have a continuous, unbroken piece of track across the whole 5m. This means you can be flexible about where the panels sit when they're open.

Option - You could use the triple track and combine it with a single track. This would allow you to have 4 panels at each end, taking up 60cm (120cm total) The outside panel would always show, and be static and the moving panels would sit behind it during the day, or whenever you wanted them open, and slide across at night.

Option - Just using the triple track would mean that with 8 panels you would have 3 'resting areas' 3 panels at each end and 2 in the middle (taking up 180 cm) So three panels always on show.

Does this make sense? It's easier doing it when I can draw diagrams, or wave bits of track about!

A couple of other questions I have about Kvartal:

• can it be hung outwards from the wall? Our ceiling has a huge height differential between each side of the room (about 10cm), so I am not sure if the track could be attached successfully to it.

Yep, there are wall brackets as well as the ceiling brackets.

• how far does the track stick out from the wall? (I couldn't see width dimensions of the track online). We currently have a TV in one of the corners. We could move it forward a little to accommodate track and panels, but not much.

There are two sizes of bracket. Hang on a mo, let me check the sizes... Ok. Small bracket is 7cm, large is 14.5 cm, triple rail is 5cm wide, single is 2cm, so...counts on fingers So even doing 4 tracks the most it would stick out is 7 cm (maximum 14.5cm if you wanted more space between inside panels and glass)


I hope this helps (and makes sense)! If you were anywhere near Croydon I'd do it in person

[GrendelsMum]

Could you try those Tod Boontje curtains?

www.dutchbydesign.com/products-Until-Dawn-Curtain-Tord-Boontje_F%2086.htm

[YesImSinister]

Serenity - that is really useful. Thank you

[YesImSinister]

GrendelsMum - those curtains look lovely, but I fear that with 3 children and a dog curtains made of paper would not last long!

[MrsBoo]

We use lights in our garden - which means no curtains - its great I dont like curtains or blinds

[YesImSinister]

Thanks MrsBoo. And to everyone else for their advice.

We have decided to put lights on the decking. We will see how that looks before taking any decisions on whether to put something inside. If we feel we do need it, will likely go either with the panelled curtain system from Ikea or a beaded curtain on strings like Midnight Express recommended.

[midnightexpress]

YesImSinister, sort of yes, but it doesn't have beads. A bead-free bead curtain.

ta-da. Hers is green though.

[YesImSinister]

ooh, and they come in silver too MidnightExpress

[AdamAdam]

Hopefully i can add a little to this discussion. I actually own a folding sliding door company called Valdi.

I have read nearly all the posts but if i have missed anything i appologise.

1st off there should be no reason why you can not replace your existing glass for ones with blinds intergrated into the panels. They are adjusted with magnets so no need for cords. Great because no little fingers can get hold of them and also easy to clean.

2nd There are options much like what was posted earlier where you can have sliding screens in front that although you cant block visability altogether it may help. Otherwise you can have a full "fly screen" that will act as both a security for small children when the doors are open and also screen any visability.

On ours we suggest to people that they can mount venetian style blinds to the top of the frame (assuming they are outward opeing)

Hope this helps, but im happy to answer any other questions, or our web site is www.valdi.com we dont have any images of the screens on there but if you email us we can send some larger images or help with contacting the right people for the intrgral blinds.