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Roman Shades for Sliding Glass Doors

In these times when sliding glass doors are gaining new fame for their space-saving benefits, roman shades are also becoming more sought after among soft window treatments to dress up these sliders. The shades’ svelte structure, stylish folds and easy operability make them perfect suitors for sliding doors. So, if you’re looking for roman shades for sliding glass doors for your home, this blog is a must-read for you.

Sharing the same sleek and flat shape as the door, roman shades bring softness and elegance to the space, unlike other blinds which only often fulfill a strictly functional responsibility. With impeccable gracefulness and the immense scope for designing that only fabrics can deliver, roman shades don’t just carry off as excellent window treatments for sliding doors but also as attractive decor elements.

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Adding Elegance to Transparency: Roman Shades for Sliding Glass Doors

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Clear glass doors come with great advantages of their own. When used on exterior walls, they enable you to enjoy outdoor views from inside the home. As partition walls, they proffer versatility to space – to become a visually enlarged area even with closed doors, or become a secluded room with suitable coverings. When opened, they merge two or more rooms into one large area.

The versatility of the space demands deep consideration regarding the window treatments. If you want a solution that frees up the wall space completely when opened, roman shades are the disputeless choice for glass doors among fabric lovers. Besides, for those who are looking beyond the functional efficiency of blinds to add an element of chic, roman shades are the go-to. So, having made the right choice for your home, you are just a few tips away from styling your sliders perfectly. Here are our stylists’ tips that will help you immensely to get the best out of the roman shades for your sliding glass doors.

Fabric Selection

First and foremost, square down on the type of fabric you want the roman shades to be made of. If you want to enjoy daylight, get sheer roman shades that allow light to pass through. Where privacy is of utmost importance, go for opaque shades and for greater heat resistance, blackout shades. Choose from among linens, cottons, velvets, silks and blends, depending on your style and preference.

The next decision is regarding the palette of the roman shade. Besides keeping rhythm with the overall color scheme, consider how light colors help to make the room feel more spacious while dark colors help to feel a sense of enclosure. Whether you should go for a solid-colored shade or a patterned shade depends on the usage of patterns in the rest of the room decor. Solid shades look classic as well as minimalistic while patterned shades help to make a room dominated by plain surfaces look more interesting.

Fold Style

Each style of roman shade is meant to fulfill a particular set of needs. The flat fold shades are designed for windows that will be operated often while the relaxed shades are meant for less-used windows. While flat folds have a tailored look and a functional orientation, relaxed shades have a gently scalloped bottom that adds a decorative element.

From a practical point of view, we highly recommend the flat fold roman shades which come in two styles. The front-slatted style is especially suitable for solid-colored shades as the hemlines of the slats render a pattern of their own. The back-slatted style suits better for patterned fabrics that need a continuous surface for a distortionless presentation.

If you’re looking for shades that purely work as a decor element, and are not fully operational, faux roman shade valances fit right.

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Internal or External Doors

Depending on whether your sliding doors are on the external walls of the house or functioning as partition doors between rooms, adequate consideration is required regarding the rear side view of the roman shade. If you’re lining the shade, the color that will be visible on the rear side will be white for a privacy lining, and beige or gray for a blackout lining. If you’re not lining the shade, the rear side of the face fabric will be visible from the other side. Besides, if the hardware is not covered by the wall, consider its visibility from the other side too.

If your sliding glass doors need to double up as internal partition walls to form very private spaces at times, be aware of how the back side of the shades will look as it will show the hardware in one of the two spaces.

One or Multiple

Considering that the roman shades are for doors, ensuring their maximum functionality is of prime importance. The ease of movement largely depends on the weight of the shade. So, it is better to opt for multiple narrow shades rather than a super-wide single roman shade.

Another advantage of this sort of setup is that you can keep one shade open for passage while all others are closed for privacy and light control. Mounting them close enough to leave not so much as a gap confers yet a unified look, so you don’t have to worry that they will look like many individual shades.

Ease of Operation

Roman shades that fold upwards at the pulling of a cord are practically efficient and easy to operate. Moreover, the fact that they clear the doorway completely enables the wall and floor to be free for high-traffic zones. We do advise comparing that with the operability of drapes which open sideways and let you cover off a side, leaving the other open for convenience.

Also worth considering is how any treatment you choose will look when open and closed. Sliding door curtains, for example, will stack to the sides leaving an extra-wide set of doors looking bare, while roman shades – when folded up – will look like a valance dressing the entire top span of your doors.

These kinds of aspects make a huge difference to the aesthetics of the room as well as the accessibility. So, when in a hurry, and you want to adjust the light settings, drapes are more handy as they are right there whereas shades will take a tad more of your time as they rhythmically move in tandem with the pulling of the cord. If you want to incorporate the goodness of both drapes and shades into your home, consider having a double-layered window treatment which has a world of benefits to offer.

Wrapping up

Image by Katarzyna Bialasiewicz

With these guidelines, you are sure to get it right. Glass sliding doors are a feature in themselves. With the right roman shade to cover them, they will only get to be more stunning. Whatever the kind of fabric you’re looking for, and whatever door you’re trying to dress – be it sliding doors or French doors, it’s hard to not find it in our catalogs. Homely linens and cottons, stylish velvets and silks, and their blends are available in the 3000+ fabrics at Spiffy Spools. So, take your time to browse through our site until you find the right roman shades for your sliding glass doors.

READ MORE: ROMAN SHADES FOR DOORS