Cellular Shades & Blinds for Sliding Glass Doors

A sliding glass door is usually the biggest single stretch of glass in the house, and it is the one people walk through all day. It lets hard afternoon sun onto the floor, and after dark it puts the whole room on view from the yard. Cellular shades and blinds for sliding glass doors answer that with one soft, pleated layer across the full width of the door. The honeycomb fabric closes off the view, takes the edge off the light, and folds up neatly above the frame when you want to step outside. Every shade is made to measure for your door and shipped direct to you.

Which cellular shade suits your slider

Two fabric families cover most doors. Light filtering cellular shades soften daylight and keep the room bright while hiding the view in, which suits a living room or kitchen slider that faces a garden, a deck or the neighbors. Blackout cellular shades close the door off fully, the better choice when the slider opens off a bedroom or a family room where the TV sits opposite the glass.

The lift is where a door differs from a window. A bead chain lift lets one shade span the whole opening. Cordless leaves nothing hanging beside the handle, which helps where children or pets pass the door all day. A motor lets you lower a wide shade from a remote, a wall switch or an app, and both battery and plug-in versions are offered, with a solar charger, a standard WiFi hub or a Matter hub as add-ons. Top down bottom up is also built on our cellular line: drop the top rail for sky and daylight while the lower half keeps the room screened from the yard.

On style, a slider reads as part of the wall, so pick a fabric close to the wall or trim color if you want the door to recede, or a deeper tone if you want the opening framed.

Widths, drops and the right lift

The lift you choose sets the size limits, so check your door against these before you order:

• Bead chain: one shade from 18 to 197 inches wide, with up to 157 inches of drop. This is the only cellular lift that covers a very wide multi-panel slider in a single shade.
• Cordless: 12 to 94 inches wide and up to 94 inches of drop. A wider door needs bead chain, or two cordless shades side by side.
• Motorized: 23 to 126 inches wide, but the drop stops at 79 inches. A shade hung on the wall above a tall door can run past that, so measure the drop before you choose a motor.
• Top down bottom up: 19 to 197 inches wide and 157 inches of drop with a dual bead chain, 12 to 98 inches wide and 94 inches of drop cordless, and the same 79 inch drop limit when motorized.

If one lift cannot meet both your width and your drop, two shades side by side give you more choice, and they let you open the half in front of the moving panel while the fixed side stays down.

Measuring and installing it yourself

Decide on the mount first. On most sliders an outside mount, on the wall above the door, is the easier fit: it clears the handle and the track, and the shade can overlap the frame on each side. For an outside mount, add about 3 7/8 inches to both the width and the height of the area you want covered, which improves coverage at the edges. An inside mount works where the frame is deep enough and nothing projects into the opening; an inside mount shade is built about 1/4 inch narrower than the opening so it clears the frame.

Measure in inches with a steel tape, to the nearest 1/8 inch, and write the width before the height. Renting, or rather not drill? A no-drill mounting kit is offered on the cellular line.

Send us the width and height of your door, choose your fabric and lift, and your cellular shade is built to that size and shipped to your door ready to hang.