Window Treatment Ideas for French Doors

(531 Words)
French doors provide a beautiful look for the inside and outside of a home. They allow light through just like windows, but obviously function as doors. You may not want to always let the light through for comfort or practicality reasons. There are a number of window dressing ideas that can change the look of your French doors and provide this functionality. Consider the following ideas.
One idea is to use blinds on your French doors. Better Homes & Gardens suggests dark bamboo blinds. These allow you to change the light on each door by many degrees. You can rotate them to let just a little light through or you can pull them up to any amount to let the amount of light that you want to let through. They can completely block out the sun altogether or be completely open. The dark wood also provides a lovely design element for your home, and is very nice in natural homes. Of course there are many different options in blinds. You can choose blinds with fabric or another material in any color or pattern that you choose. These also are often very reasonable window dressings.
Another idea is to put individual shades on the French doors. This is advantageous since you can change the amount of light on each door without affecting the other doors. You can decide how far up to put them. There are many different options in shades. You can find a beautiful pattern that will give a rich look to your home. They also range in how much light they allow through. You can choose one that is completely room darkening if you want to have times when the room is completely dark, or you can choose ones that are translucent and will always let some light through. They also range in how they are pulled up and down. Some of them will spring up when you pull them down and others allow you to simply slide them up and down.
An extremely common way to cover French doors is to use fabric or some sort of curtains. There are many different ways you can do this. Some people will put the curtains in front of the French doors and not actually on them. When closed they will give the look of a window and not show that there are doors there. This also allows you to keep the doors open while leaving the curtains closed.
Many people also put the fabric directly onto the French doors. You can purchase already made curtains or you can make your own with any of the fabrics available at fabric stores or online. A rich pattern can look very nice. Some people will put the fabric directly on the glass. Sometimes they will make a design with the fabric on the glass, such as attaching the fabric to the four corners but then tying it in the middle to allow some light through and give a nice design element.
There are many different ways that you can dress up a French door. Think about the type of covering you want as well as the look you desire when making your choice.