Window treatment for aluminum French doors

[MSWR0319]

What type of window treatment do you have on your french doors? We have a set going out onto our patio and need something to cover the windows. I bought magnetic curtain rods thinking they were steel, but DH says they must be aluminum since the magnets won't stick. I don't want to drill any holes in the doors, leaving me with no idea how to cover these windows!

[LMPC]

We actually don't have any type of covering on ours. When we lived in NJ, we had a rod at the top and a rod at the bottom. Unfortunately, screws had to be drilled

[katydid1971]

I don't have your problem but have you thought of window film. You could remove it if you decided you didn't like it. You can get it to just block light or to provide privacy depending on what kind you use. I have window film on windows on the part of our house that gets very warm in the summer afternoons.

[jent]

How about putting a curtain rod above the door? The doors are essentially like a big window and it seems like the design advice these days is to "cheat" the curtains above the window a bit.

[KHF]

We had 2 sets of those doors at our old house, and finally ended up putting Roman Shades on them and just drilling the holes. Anything put above the doors would have interfered with the opening of them. It really wasn't a big deal. We even changed out the shades on one of them, and used the same holes as before.

We thought about the window film, but I didn't really like that look. I wanted to be able to see out of them when I wanted to, and cover them up when I wanted to. Shades were the only solution I could come up with.

[sunshine873]

I just put a curtain rod up above the door (above the frame, etc.) The curtains are on rings, and I just slide them to the side during the day. They're completely out of the way of the entire door. As long as you have enough space on the sides to have the curtains hang there, then you could open & close the doors at whim.

[KHF]

That was what I had hoped to do in our old house, unfortunately, ours were right next to the kitchen and there were cabinets about 6 inches from the opening side of the door, so no room for curtains. Hopefully that will work for the OP!

[MSWR0319]

I think that's probably a good idea to put a rod above the door. Do you think it's ok to have long curtains in the kitchen? There's nothing else on the wall so there's room to slide the curtains during the day. I just don't like that someone could look in at night, especially if DH is gone for work.

[SammyeGail]

This is what we put on our french doors that lead to the back deck. We get full sun first thing in the AM thru them and it got so hot, these helped so much.

http://www.selectblinds.com/cellular...ar-shades.html

I paid extra for the option where they automatically go up and down when you pull/push on the bottom, (I see its called cordless lift on the website) the boys were toddlers and I didn't need them messing with cords! My doors are white and I chose an off white color, I would say its a light almond.

I measured the top piece to see how much it stuck out, it is 1 3/4". I'm sure we had to put nails in to install, we've had them about 3 yrs, I don't remember, lol, but we plan to leave them with the house when we sell. You can't see any nail holes.

Its great that you can close them all the way, we do each night so we aren't blinded by sunlight and the kitchen is hot in the AM. We open them in the afternoon after the sun has moved, about 3/4, we should open them all the way and enjoy the view of the leaves changing colors! Sometimes we keep them closed all the time for privacy.

The 'cordless lift' needs a little help now, but with 2 little boys playing with them (I have tried and tried to stop them) I guess it got worn out.

They aren't decorative, but I love them and they were worth every penny.