Zebra Shades & Blinds for French Doors

French doors bring in daylight and a view of the garden, and they also put a large sheet of glass on show from outside. A shade has to give you privacy when you want it, let the light back in when you do not, and stay neat on a door that opens and closes all day. Zebra shades and blinds for french doors handle that from one shade per door. Alternating sheer and solid bands run on a single roller, and sliding them past each other moves the glass from a soft screen to a closed face in a few inches of travel. Every shade is made to measure for your doors and shipped direct to you.

Zebra and the roller shades to compare

Zebra shades lead this page. Because you change privacy by shifting the bands rather than raising the shade, a zebra shade on a french door can stay down most of the day. It is built in a cassette only, so the roller sits behind a clean squared front. The fabric runs to 16 colors across two collections, from frost, pearl and ivory through sand, stone and slate to smoke, onyx and obsidian.

Solar shades keep the view through the door while cutting glare, at 1, 3, 5 or 10 percent openness. Light filtering roller shades give a single soft panel for a door onto a patio, and blackout roller shades suit french doors that open off a bedroom.

A few design notes. Use the same color on both doors of a pair, and line the bands up at the same position so the pair reads as one. Pale bands keep a dining room bright and sit quietly against white trim; darker bands frame the garden and suit black door hardware. Match the cassette, in white, beige, grey or black, to the door so it reads as part of the frame.

Cassettes and minimum widths on door glass

French door glass is narrow compared with a window, so minimum width decides more than maximum here. Zebra is built on two squared cassettes. On CB-268, a cordless zebra shade starts at 19 3/4 inches wide and a motorized one at 20 1/2 inches, and the shade can drop up to 80 inches, which covers the glass on most french doors. On CB-235, cordless needs 23 5/8 inches and motorized 20 1/8 inches. A chain operated zebra shade starts at 18.8 inches wide. Check narrow glass against these figures before you choose a lift.

Depth matters on a door, because the glass usually sits in a shallow recess. The CB-268 cassette is about 2 15/16 inches square and CB-235 about 3 1/2 inches, so most french door shades mount on the face of the door rather than inside the glass. A handle in the way can often be cleared by ordering a reverse roll, which hangs the fabric off the front of the tube. A motorized zebra shade runs from a remote, a wall switch or an app, and works with Alexa, Google Home and Apple HomePod.

Measuring and installing it yourself

Measure each door on its own, width and height, and note where the handle sits and how far it projects. On a pair of doors the handles are on opposite sides, so label each figure left or right. Send us the exact numbers you measure; the factory applies its own deductions for the tube, fabric and bottom bar.

The cassette hangs on two brackets. Drill with a 6 mm (0.2 inch) bit, set the screws 1.1 inches apart, and use the anchor that matches the surface. Each bracket has four pre-drilled holes, and on a door that moves every day it is worth using all four. Hook the valance groove onto the bracket latch, press back until it clicks, and confirm the top and rear are both locked. To remove it later, press the metal washer at the back of the bracket rather than prying from the front.

Order a zebra sample and hold it against your door at midday and in the evening, then send us your measurements. We will build each shade to its own door and ship the pair direct.