Cellular Shades & Blinds for French Doors

French doors bring in more light than almost any other opening, and that is also the trouble with them. Each door is a tall pane of glass that swings, so a covering has to sit flat on the door, stay put when it moves and still leave the handle free. Cellular shades and blinds for French doors handle that well. One slim honeycomb shade is sized to the glass on each door, it folds into a short stack at the top, and it gives you privacy and softer light without a bulky layer moving with the door. Every shade is made to measure for your doors and shipped direct to you.

Choosing a cellular shade for each door

Most French doors are covered with a matching pair, one shade per door, so the choice is mainly about light. Light filtering cellular shades soften daylight and keep the room bright while screening the view in, a good fit for doors that open from a dining room, a kitchen or a living room onto a patio or garden. Blackout cellular shades close each pane off completely, the better pick when the doors lead out of a bedroom or a den where you want the room dark.

The lift matters more on a door than on a window. Cordless leaves nothing hanging to catch on the handle or swing against the glass, which is why it is the usual choice here. A bead chain lift suits wider doors. Motorized shades are offered with battery or plug-in power, so both doors can be raised together from a remote or an app. Top down bottom up lets you drop the top of each shade for daylight while the lower half keeps the room private, and Day and Night pairs a sheer with a solid fabric in one shade.

For a clean look, match both shades in one color close to the door or trim so the doors still read as glass. A deeper tone works if you want the doors framed as a feature in the room.

Sizes that fit a door panel

Door glass is tall and fairly narrow, so check your panels against the limits for the lift you want:

• Cordless: 12 to 94 inches wide with up to 94 inches of drop, which covers the glass on most single doors.
• Bead chain: from 18 inches wide, so a very narrow panel needs cordless instead.
• Motorized: from 23 inches wide, with the drop capped at 79 inches. Measure the glass height before you choose a motor.
• Top down bottom up cordless: 12 to 98 inches wide, from 8 inches high up to 94 inches of drop.
• Day and Night cordless: 12 to 79 inches wide, from 8 inches high up to 94 inches of drop.

Because each door is measured on its own, a slightly uneven pair is not a problem. Give us each door's size and each shade is built to it.

Measuring and installing it yourself

Measure each door separately in inches with a steel tape, to the nearest 1/8 inch, and write the width before the height. Most French door shades are mounted on the door itself over the glass. If the glass sits in a recessed frame deep enough to hold the shade, an inside mount fits within it, and the shade is built about 1/4 inch narrower than the opening so it clears the frame. For an outside mount over the frame, add about 3 7/8 inches to both width and height so the shade overlaps the glass on every side and blocks light at the edges.

Renting, or would rather not drill into the door? A no-drill mounting kit is offered on the cellular line.

Send us the width and height of each door's glass, choose your fabric and lift, and your matching pair of cellular shades is made to measure and shipped to your door ready to hang.