[laurie]

We just took our old 8 foot sliding glass patio door out and had it replaced with a new 8 ft. Marvin slider with 3-1/2" moulding all around (would have loved french doors, but were much more expensive for the custom size and the wall we're taking out by it for the kitchen redo., it would have been in the way.)


* I'm tired of the old vertical blinds.

* there's only 5" of wall next to the trim before the kitchen wall.

I brought home curtain panels and a decorative rod and rings for attaching the panels. Didn't like it. It's not a window so it seemed weird to me to have these curtain panels hanging over the moulding and 5" next to the trim on the left doesn't leave much room. (We also don't have any windows in this room; this is the total source of natural light AND there's a patio enclosure built up to this door.)

What can I do?

On my windows in the front of my house, I'm planning to build a cornice box and wrap with material. Can something like that be done? Wouldn't it look funny 8ft long? And what could be installed to provide the privacy when we need it? Do they have nicer looking vertical blinds now than the ugly plastic looking things I have now?

I'm going to the JC Penney Home Store on Sunday because they have a big sale going on right now. Any ideas would definitely be appreciated.

[DesignDiva]

Yes, you can use a cornice board. Just make sure you support it in several places along the length of it, using L brackets or even a cleat.

What I would recommend is two rollup bamboo blinds, or roman shades, that would be mounted on the wall just above the frame and would be hidden by the cornice board when fully pulled up. Then you could freely access the door but would have coverage if needed when you're inside. Each one would be only 48" wide so it would be easy to manage and lighter in weight than pulling up an eight-foot shade! And you could close the non-opening shades and leave the operational side free if you wanted to, without obstructing the door movement.

[GardenOfDarwin]

What's on the other side of the slider that isn't the 5" before the kitchen wall?

Susan

[laurie]

Eva: I was considering the bamboo shades installed under the cornice, but dh thinks it would be dorky having pull-up/down shades installed in front of a door. Does anyone else think this would look funny?

My reason for considering that was because I have a slight asian decor in this room.

Susan: This room is the living room, so to the right of the door is the remainder of the almost 20' long room.

[GardenOfDarwin]

Since you've got that good long run on the other side of the door, have you considered using the KVARTAL system? I could swear it was called KVADRANT last year, but anyhoo, it's a system somewhat like what you see in hospitals where the panels drop down from a track on the ceiling. They also have wall mounted rails. Anyway, you can have up to 3 different panel sets, so you could have a light filtering, a light blocking and a decorative set. There are many choices that would complement a slightly Asian decor - the panels are mostly called ANNO.

You playin' hookie today? Or are you snowed in?

Susan

[Shouva]

Those panels are too cool! You can use your own fabric too, not just the ones sold by Ikea. Most of the ones at Ikea are thin and would not provide much in the way of privacy, especially at night when lights are on inside. I have closets that are only 19" deep in my mountain cottage. I used this system mounted on the ceiling in front of the closets to gain interior depth for the closets without using thick doors. ( A room that is only 7'9" wide cannot afford to loose any width. Hey, it's a cottage. Think tiny but with beautiful surroundings.)

Shouva

[sabine]

You might want to check out offerings here
http://www.smithandnoble.com/sn/home.jsp

custom stuff at reasonable prices. And they have a handy chart that shows stack width of all of their options.

[DesignDiva]

Laurie, I think it would be fine because the blinds would either be totally up, and concealed, or totally down and look like a wall of bamboo.

[kisaacs]

My parents have a sliding door to a deck at their condo, and they use two sets of wooden blinds (horizontal, not vertical). As Eva said, they're either up or down, and don't look funny at all. I like them much more than I do the vertical blinds.

[laurie]

Thank you everyone for your help and sabine, I'll check that out. I have no idea what KVRADANT looks like, but I'll look it up in the catalog and see what my options are. Although, don't know if it would cost much to ship since we're so far from IKEA.

I still love the bamboo idea and will keep it as a consideration.

Susan: No school today (Yippee!!) It's been very "St. Louis" style weather here lately. Three days ago it was 70 degrees. Yesterday we had an ice storm and it dropped to the upper 20's. All the districts around us either were closed, or had early dismissal. NOT US!! I had to drive my bus in that mess and it was definitely a bad call on the part of our school district. Alot of hilly, curvy roads around here. My drive home in our Silverado yesterday, up a very steep hill, was for the most part, sideways. But today, the trees are absolutely beautiful with the sun shining on the ice covered limbs.

Just like the kids, I'm looking forward to Christmas break!!