· Michael Blair
Most Nashville houses have at least one sliding glass door, to the deck or the patio, and it is usually on the west or south side where the afternoon sun comes straight through it. Covering it is a different problem from covering a window. The treatment has to span six or eight feet, clear the opening completely when the door is in use, survive being brushed past a dozen times a day, and still block heat and give privacy after dark. The old answer was vertical blinds, and the reasons people replaced them are the same reasons to think carefully about what replaces them.
Vertical blinds and their replacements
Vertical blinds solve the mechanics well: they stack to one side, they tilt for light control, and they are inexpensive. What went wrong was the material and the sound: thin vinyl vanes that yellowed, cracked at the clips and clattered in the draft from the door. Modern vertical blinds in fabric or wide vinyl vanes with a heavier headrail are a different product, and they remain the practical choice for a rental or a budget.
Panel track blinds are the same idea grown up: wide flat fabric panels, often the same material as roller shades, that slide on a multi-channel track and stack to one side or both. They read as clean and modern, they come in room-darkening and solar fabrics, and they cost more. Both need a stacking space beside the door equal to a fraction of the door width, so measure the wall on the side the door does not open toward.
Shutters on a sliding door
Plantation shutters on a sliding door are built as a bypass or a bifold track system: panels on a top track that slide in front of each other, or fold and slide to one side. They match shutters on the rest of the house, they take the heat well, and they are the most durable option. The constraints are depth, because the track and the panels project several inches into the room, and clearance, because a bypass system always leaves at least one panel covering part of the glass unless it stacks past the opening.
On a door that is used constantly, sliding shutter panels are heavier to move than fabric and the track has to be sturdy. On a door used mostly for light and view, they are the choice that looks most like part of the house.
- Vertical blinds: cheapest, stack to one side, choose fabric or heavy vinyl
- Panel track: clean look, roller-shade fabrics, needs stacking room
- Bypass or bifold shutters: most durable, need depth and stacking room
- Drapery: softest look, best for heat if lined, takes the most wall
- Cellular vertical shades: insulating, quiet, less common
Drapery and the heat problem
Floor-length drapery on a traverse rod that extends well past the door on both sides covers a sliding door completely and stacks off the glass entirely, which no blind or shutter does. Lined or interlined, it is also the best of the options at stopping afternoon heat, because a layer of fabric with an air gap behind it is an insulator in a way that a vane is not. The cost is wall space for the stack-back and the fact that drapery brushing past a door to the yard picks up whatever is on the way in.
A solar shade or a light-filtering panel track handles heat and glare while keeping the view, which matters on a door that looks at a yard you like. For a door that takes the full west sun, the practical answer is often two layers: a solar shade or panel track for the day and a lined drape for evening and winter.
What to decide before ordering
Which way the door slides, and which side of the wall has room for the stack. Whether the treatment mounts inside the door frame, which is rarely deep enough, or on the wall above and beyond it, which is the usual answer. How high the mount can go, because a track mounted near the ceiling makes the door look taller and clears the door handle. Whether pets or children will be going through the door, which rules out anything with cords or low-hanging vanes.
And how the door is actually used. A door that is the main route to the yard wants something that opens with one motion and stays out of the way: a panel track or drapery on a rod. A door that is mostly a window wants the light control and the look of shutters or a good vertical. Match the treatment to the traffic and the sun, and the choice makes itself.