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Roman Shades for Doors

While on a home decor project, it is not rare to find homeowners thinking of introducing window treatments for doors. Glass doors on exterior walls, in particular, which render a modern look to the home, eventually end up killing the much-needed privacy of the family, if left untreated. Among several known alternatives like draperies and blinds, if it is roman shades that have wooed your aesthetic instincts, this blog on roman shades for doors can help you with some important tips.

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Roman Shades: A Marriage of Drapes & Blinds

While draperies are high on elegance and blinds on functional efficiency, roman shades offer the best of both worlds for they marry the softness of fabrics with the minimalistic approach of blinds. Fans abound for all three and for good reason, but some situations are ready stages for roman shades.

Advantages of Roman Shades over Curtains

Image by Everhem

Curtains and draperies have long been the standard dressing of windows and doors. Their color and softness help any home become a truly welcoming space. No window treatment does a better job of privacy and light control than custom drapes since they involve more yardage of material. And yet, for certain spaces, roman shades get the preference, here’s why –

Sleekness: The flat profile and the top stackability enable roman shades to free more wall space and floor space than curtains. In areas where doors have no wall spaces on the sides to gather drapes, curtain panels can obstruct the view and light, but shades will mount up and make the entire doorway free.

Partial coverage adjustability: Unlike drapes that can be either opened or closed, roman shades can be kept open at a suitable level on a regular basis. For glass doors with multiple panels, that translates to a uniform look, almost like a valance, when the shades are partially open, whereas drapes would have left most panels bare when opened.

Easy functioning: Where the door’s recess is deep enough to mount the shade inside frame, it is easy to operate the door, whereas drapes would have to be drawn aside to get hold of the handle.

Advantages of Roman Shades over Blinds

Image by Designmyhome.ru

Often sporting neutral or wood hues, blinds are confined to the functional aspect of window treatments or at least don’t work hard enough to double up as decor elements. Minimalist homes that feature restricted palettes are dressed right with blinds, but maximalists and maximal minimalists find a more endearing option in roman shades. For, they merge the functionality and sleekness of blinds with keen labor of love, and enormous capacity to feature colors, patterns, and textures. Additionally, the fabric composition offers acoustic benefits. Blinds are wonderful, but they may not be everyone’s top choice, here’s why –

Roller blinds: With an ultra-sleek profile and zero stacking room, roller blinds do excellent except for the stark appeal. The mass-produced trait and the lack of human touch bring it nowhere close to roman shades that are bespoke and offer endless design alternatives.

Vertical & horizontal slat blinds: Venetian blinds, vertical blinds, wood and faux wood blinds, and sliding plantation shutters are great options for those who love neutral and wood tones. But that’s about it, if you need to go beyond this palette, you’ll be utterly disappointed. Besides, the maintenance is harder with individual slats needing care instead of one flat surface that shines with a sweeping swab. Roman shades are the heroes – they don’t dictate the palette and are easy to maintain.

Solar blinds: Extremely efficient at blocking UV rays, but heavily compromising privacy during the night, solar blinds fare poorly before blackout roman shades that offer both.

Where curtains are seen generally as a traditional window treatment and the machine-produced blinds are too modern and clinical, roman shades tend to work as a cross-breed capable of blending with traditional as well as modern styles of decor and all in between. So, kudos for the selection, and now over to some important considerations to be made before you shop roman shades for your doors.

SHOP NOW: CUSTOM ROMAN SHADES FROM SPIFFY SPOOLS

Roman Shades for Doors: Factors to Consider

Image by Lonni Paul Design / Lisa Romerein

You might agree that the journey is as important as the destination in this case. While the choice of installing roman shades at the doors is excellent in itself, there are a few things to be kept in mind to achieve the desired results.

Installation Point

Where to install the shade is by far, the first decision to be made regarding roman shades for doors. The fact is that it largely depends on the type of door and the depth of the recess.

For example, if you are dressing French doors that open outwards, you will find yourself less constrained by options. You can choose to mount your shades inside the door frame or outside on the wall space above the door.

But on the other hand, if your door swings inwards, the roman shade would ideally be mounted inside door frames for every individual door panel, so the shades do not hinder the function of the door. If you choose to mount them outside, care should be taken to mount them high enough to accommodate the stacking room on the wall itself so that the entire door is accessible when the shades are opened.

The depth of recess of the door frame is another key factor in deciding the installation point of roman shades. The door’s recess should be at least 2 inches deep to host a shade. If not, it can only be mounted on the wall above the window.

You also would need to consider if there are any challenges posed by the construction material of your doors. It may not be possible to drill brackets and hardware in recess of a metal door, while wooden French doors will typically allow you to mount roman shades by mounting hardware on the top wood column of the door.

Fold Style

We provide roman shades in three styles: the front-slatted flat bottom shades, the back-slatted flat bottom shades, and the scalloped bottom relaxed shades.

The European/relaxed roman shades are ideal where a decorative element is more appreciated than functional efficiency because their swagging folds need a caring hand to set the folds each time they are operated. But if your doors are largely left unused, it’s a viable option.

Straight-bottomed shades are ideal for doors that are used frequently. The slats ensure their functional efficiency. The front-slatted style is recommended for solid fabrics which profit from the horizontal stripes formed by the silhouettes of the slats on the frontage.

Patterned fabrics, however, may find front slats to be a a visual interruption to their flow, so back-slatted shades are recommended for these.

Number of panels

Since roman shades are as heavy as the fabric they are made of, super-wide shades may not be very easy to operate. Therefore, if the door width is more than 96 inches, we recommend ordering multiple narrow shades. This will also allow more flexibility regarding the right level of privacy and light control because one panel can be kept open for passage and the rest closed.

Faux Shades

Sometimes, the real concern may not be privacy or light control. You may just want to add an element of softness and color rather than leaving the door bare as if unattended. Especially, if you have gone to a great extent to decorate the room, bare doorways can look out of place. In such cases, we suggest our decorative faux shade valances. They can be installed on standard drapery rods and cover almost a fourth of your door or as much as you wish. They are just stationary valances that look like roman shades folded up. By coordinating the faux shade with throw pillows and/or upholstery of the room in the same fabric, you can achieve a custom look for your decor effortlessly.

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Image by Studio Thomas James / Costa Christ Media

We hope that you have found this blog to be resourceful for your intentions. Nothing can soften a space like a soft window treatment. And with such a wide variety of fabrics, colors, textures, and patterns on offer at Spiffy Spools, you should face a choice overload and never fail to find your favorite shade or pattern here. Browse through our collections and shop your favorite piece today. Happy shopping!

READ MORE: ROMAN SHADES FOR FRENCH DOORS