Blackout Shades & Blinds for Sliding Glass Doors

A sliding glass door can light up a whole room at the wrong time. Morning sun pours across the bed, streetlights and porch lights shine in after dark, and a TV wall facing the glass washes out every afternoon. Blackout shades and blinds for sliding glass doors close all of that off with one opaque layer across the door, then roll or fold away when you want to step outside. They are the right pick for a slider in a bedroom, a nursery, a basement family room or a media space. Every shade is made to measure for your door and shipped direct to you.

Roller or cellular for a blackout slider

Blackout roller shades are the clean, modern choice. A single flat panel of opaque fabric covers the glass and rolls up tight at the top, on an open roll or inside a cassette, so nothing stacks in front of the view when the shade is up. They can be ordered with a reverse roll, where the fabric hangs off the front of the tube instead of the back, which helps it clear a door handle or a deep sill. Lifts include a clutch loop, cordless, a powerwand and motorization.

Blackout cellular shades add a softer pleated look and the honeycomb profile. A bead chain lift lets one shade span a very wide door, cordless keeps the handle area clear of cords, and motorized versions come in battery or plug-in power. Top down bottom up is offered too, so you can open the top for daylight while the lower half stays closed.

On style, a dark slider fabric frames the door as a feature; a color close to the wall lets it disappear into the room when closed.

Widths and drops for blackout

Blackout goods run narrower than light filtering fabric, so check your door before you order:

• Blackout roller in the squared cassette: up to 94 1/2 inches wide and 118 inches of drop. Minimum width is 11 3/4 inches with a clutch loop, 20 1/8 inches motorized and 23 5/8 inches cordless.
• Over 100 inches of drop, a roller moves to the large cassette with a 43 mm tube, which reaches 118 inches wide and 120 inches high.
• Some fabrics are milled on rolls narrower than the system, and then the roll sets the maximum width, so confirm the width of the fabric you choose on a wide door.
• Blackout cellular, bead chain: 18 to 197 inches wide, up to 157 inches of drop.
• Blackout cellular, cordless: 12 to 94 inches wide, up to 94 inches of drop.
• Blackout cellular, motorized: 23 to 126 inches wide, with the drop capped at 79 inches. A shade hung above a standard door can run past that, so measure first.

A door wider than one blackout roller can cover is best handled with two shades side by side, which also lets you raise only the half over the moving panel.

Measuring and installing it yourself

For blackout on a slider, an outside mount on the wall above the door usually works best. It clears the handle and the track, and the shade can overlap the frame. Add about 3 7/8 inches to the width and height of the area you want covered so light cannot slip around the edges. Measure in inches with a steel tape, to the nearest 1/8 inch, width first. Cassette roller brackets fix with two or more screws on opposite sides through four pre-drilled holes, and the cassette clicks onto the bracket at the top and rear. The cellular line also offers a no-drill mounting kit.

Send us your door size, choose roller or cellular and your lift, and your blackout shade is made to measure and shipped to your door ready to hang.