The Perfect Sliding Doors Window Treatments

One question many homeowners have is, "How should I decorate these sliding doors with window treatments?" Sliding doors are very popular for back doors, which lead onto decks or patios in th backyard. Since it is a door, it will get a good amount of traffic. Depending on your household use of the backyard, you could have tons of traffic. Going in and out to the pool, letting dogs in and out, having a barbeque wit people constantly flowing from the inside out are all ways you produce traffic through the back door. With all this traffic, how can you consider putting a cloth window treatment on such a vulnerable and highly used door?

Well, the old way was to put up hanging shades. These plastic, often noisy window treatments can be a pain, and aren't very decorative. Another way is blinds. Blinds are not so loud, yet if you hang them on the door, they will flop in and out as the door opens and closes.

You need something else. You want something with style, elegance, and color. One way is to get heavy drapes. Hang these in front of the door with a rod mounted across the top of the sliding doors. Make sure the rod overhangs the door on each side by 3-5 inches. This will give you enough room to push the drapes all the way past the entire door, preventing any part of the window treatment to get caught.

To ensure the drapes do not fly out and get caught in the door, buy some braided silk yarn from your local fabric store. Pound a small nail half way up the drape, 3-5 inches away from the door frame, depending on how far your curtain rod overhangs. Tie one end of the yarn to the nail. Take the other hand and tie a small loop onto it. When you have the drapes pulled back the entire way, take the loop end, wrap it around the drape, and hook it onto the nail to hold back the drape.

Of course, finish off the top of the window treatment with a header which will span the distance across the sliding doors covering the rod for the curtain. This is truly a simple way to decorate sliding doors, but it works and it is the easiest way to have a window treatment, for such a significant door that gets a good amount of traffic.