Shades & Blinds for Sliding Glass Doors

Almost everyone who lands on this page is asking the same question: will one shade cover my slider? Here is the direct answer. A standard sliding glass door is 72", 96", or somewhere between, and most of our roller and woven wood systems build to a maximum of 96" wide in a single shade. A 6-foot slider at 72" is comfortable. An 8-foot slider at 96" is right at the limit and usually fine. Anything wider than 96" needs a different approach, and we have one.

Wider than 96 inches: two shades, one headrail

For openings past 96" we build multiple shades on a single continuous headrail, up to 118" total. From the room it reads as one covering with one clean line across the top, not two blinds hung side by side. Each panel can operate independently, whether cordless, clutch, wand, or motorized, so you can open the half in front of the moving door panel and leave the other half down. That is usually what people actually want on a slider anyway: you walk through one side, not the middle.

There is a second 2-on-1 configuration where a single clutch or motor drives both panels together. The hardware is simpler and cheaper, the light seal is tighter because the fabric deductions are smaller, and both halves move in perfect sync. Choose it when the door is a view you cover and uncover as a whole. One note on woven wood: a common valance across the pair caps at 96", so a 118" pair takes individual valances.

Which shades and blinds suit a slider

All nine of our shade and blind systems are on this page, because the right one depends on what the door does for the room. Solar shades keep the view and cut the glare, which is why they are the most common choice on a door that looks onto a yard. Blackout roller is for a slider in a bedroom or a media room. Cellular adds real insulation, and a glass door is the biggest hole in the wall in most houses. Woven wood softens a large expanse of glass in a way flat fabric doesn't, and takes a liner when you need privacy after dark.

Measuring a sliding door, briefly

Decide first whether the shade mounts inside the door frame or outside on the wall above it. Outside mount is the usual choice on a slider: it lets the shade clear the handle and the door track, and it covers the frame, which looks better on a large opening. Add width beyond the glass on both sides so the shade overlaps the frame rather than sitting inside it. Inside mount is possible where the frame is deep enough, but check the handle first. A lever that sticks into the opening will foul a shade hanging flush.

One more constraint worth knowing before you configure: blackout fabrics are milled on narrower rolls than light filtering ones, so on some systems a blackout shade stops at 86" where the light filtering version of the same shade reaches 96". On a wide slider in blackout, the 2-on-1 headrail isn't a compromise, it is the answer.

Tell us the opening width and height and what the door faces, and we will tell you whether it is one shade or two.