Anyone got those bi-folding doors- what do you do about blinds?

[haribofan]

We are currently having an extension built and will be having bi-folding doors. As these are in the kitchen, DH doesn't seem bothered about having blinds etc but I definitely need something there.

What are our options? I know that you can get doors with a blind fitted in-between the 2 panes of glass. Are these any good? What other blinds would be practical and not take away from lots of light flooding in ?

we looked at these for our extenstion and after much faffing we decided against them, because,

to get any air at all into the room we woul dhave had to to open the door, as they have no windows to open, the folded inwards a bit and took up too much space in the room and also a friend has them and said after spending nearly £6,000 on oak one's she wished she had not botheres as they were always getting stuck and trapping fingers!

We opted for big double doors that open all the way back and three floor to ceileing glass panels either side, the far ones haveing a small window at the top to let in air.

My mums just got these blinds fitted. The blind frame is attached to the window frame (clipped, not screwed) and it flush with the window so you don't notice them as they're flush.

We have no blinds on ours in the kitchen - I mentioned the idea of the blinds between plains of glass but was told it was just something else to go wrong - which makes sense.

I thought I would want blinds, but have got used to none.

In other rooms we have curtains on them - since the doors are open or the curtains drawn, so works fine.

I've been through all this three years ago!

We didn't choose wooden doors for the reason given above (we'd had wooden in our previous house) so we compared pvc with aluminium and there was no comparison! Aluminium won hands down in all areas except price.

The frames are stronger and much narrower so that you are looking through the glass rather than at an ugly plastic frame, and they come in a range of colours (in the end we played safe and opted for white).

Following a demonstration of doors and blinds at a SunSeeker Doors installation, we felt confident enough to spend the extra on integral blinds inside the glass. They come with a guarantee but because there is no strain placed on the blinds' mechanism when it is being opened, closed, etc., there's little chance of it going wrong.

That was three years ago and (touch wood - oh no, I can't, I opted for metal!) the blinds have worked perfectly and we have had absolutely no problems sliding and folding the doors.

I don't like curtains and all the vertical blinds we've ever had have gone wrong so every window has slatted venetians but only the bifolding doors have them inside and all the other blinds in the house are dusty! (and a couple of them have gone wonky with boys - includes husband - tugging at them but this isn't a problem with the integral blinds).

I don't know which area you live but it might be worth checking www.sunseekerdoors.co.uk as I can recommend them. They measure up and manufacture to order, in England, so they can install quite quickly too (this service is in the price).

I hope that helps.

We have wooden bi-fold doors, and we too have no covering on them. We are not overlooked so not a problem and used to it now. Um'ed and ah'ed for a while and would probably have gone for panel curtains, if anything.

We fitted blinds inside the glass from sunbell, clean and easy to use
Found pvc doors a problem would recommend timber or aluminium

I really like the idea of roller blinds that allow you to see outside to your garden but prevent some of the glare from the sun coming in. I'm planning to get something like this for my own bi fold doors this summer. Take a look at this link to get an idea of what I mean.

www.blindsawnings.com/blog/?p=198

Also the ones that clip in seem to be a good idea. But the roller ones are a bit more modern looking for me. Hope this helps :-)

Have you thought about fitting a vertical blind where the track extends past the doors so that when you want to open the doors you can stack the vains right out of the way? This will also give you the option to tilt and turn the blinds to let some or no light in as you wish when they are drawn. The place to look for these is - Order Blinds

We are opting for 2 roller blinds - our doors are exceptionally large so we are having to go to a specialist supplier - Shy UK produce them and they are sold by Core Blinds - have a google because they offer some very innovative solutions - I wish we'd had our blinds recessed.

Two concerns mentioned by another poster - our bi-fold came with anti pinch seals - so they won't hurt little fingers. And the bifolds open to the outside - they open into the room at all...and these were pretty standard bifolds.

We are having two banks of bifoldss installed shortly, weve gone for the blinds inside the glass option, dh has them in his office, they've been in use for over 5 years and have never caused any problems.

We've gone for Magnet.

Has anyone installed either ID systems bifold doors or UK bifold doors with integrated blinds? How have they performed?

plissee blinds?
my parents have these on various windows and bifold doors.

How much does sunseeker pay you berno?