If your home has a patio door or set of French doors then you’ll have probably looked at it wondering, ‘How do I cover these?’ Now, with most patio doors consisting of a pane of glass on each side, and then the two doors, this can quickly become quite a large width to cover. The other type is a larger 2 door set-up where one or both doors slide to open. If your doors open inwards that adds another complexity to the equation. If they open outwards then it’s slightly easier, but here we look at the practicalities of installing a wooden blind over each type of patio doors.
Do Wooden blinds work on doors?
Wooden blinds have soared in popularity in the last couple of years, this is for several reasons, 1, They look like shutters, which have also soared in popularity but are a fraction of the cost and 2, They give you total control over the light entering your home and by tilting the slats, you’ll be able to filter and block the light as required. These type of Venetian blinds are generally left down in your window and are just tilted open and close as required. This makes them great for regular square windows or for bay windows, but in a patio door, they can be a little bit more difficult.
For example, the install location is very important. If your doors open inwards then most likely you have a very thin gap between the top of the door and the top of the recess. This means that anything installed inside the recess needs to be very thin to still allow the door to open. The alternative here is to install outside of the window recess, either into the ceiling or onto a gap between the ceiling and top of the patio door recess (if available). Wooden blinds have what is called a stack height.
This is where the slats stack together when the blind is pulled up. So on a regular patio door length (1850mm) the stack height of the blinds would be about 23cm. That’s 23cm includes the headrail and is how much room the blind will take up when pulled up in your window. So if you were thinking of installing them within the patio door recess, you’ll need to remember that when pulled up they will hang 23cm from the top of the recess when installed. This might mean you need to duck a little getting in and out of your door – also this will only work if the doors open outwards or are sliding. To get around this stack height issue, you’re best off installing the blinds outside of the recess, up onto the ceiling or face of the return. This will help to keep them up and out of the way meaning you can enjoy uninterrupted access to your outside space.
Seeing as we live in a country that gets all of about 6 sunny days a year, and depending on how much you use these doors – most people will leave the blinds down and just tilt the slats to let the light in. This is the most practical use for these blinds and will look fantastic over your patio window. We do have a maximum width of 240cm on our real wood and 260cm on our faux wood blinds. But we recommend splitting your window into 2 or 3 blinds to give you better access and the ability to just raise a blind that is lighter.
So in conclusion, you are able to install wooden blinds over a patio door, you just need to take into consideration the stack height when the blinds are pulled up and out of the way - otherwise you'll have a sore head from knocking into them each time you go in and out of the door.
What other options do I have?
For us, although we love wooden blinds at the moment, we would highly recommend our PerfectFit range of blinds - these clip onto your existing window and house the blind within their own frame. These don't require any drilling to install them and all you will need is a crosshead screwdriver - to learn more about our Perfect Fit blinds watch the quick video below.
Perfect Fit blinds are a much easier, and more stylish way to cover your doors - come in a range of colours and frame colours. These are a great way to cover patio doors, without any of the issues listed above.
