Forget Curtains - This Modern Window Treatment Will Transform Your Sliding Glass Doors

As a true portal to the outside world, you simply can't beat sliding glass doors. They allow so much light into your home when closed, and so much air when they are opened. They do present one challenging aspect to many of us though — what type of window covering looks and works best for these very large sections of our walls? Aesthetics is of course an individual preference. Many folks choose curtains or vertical blinds for sliding glass doors, but for some of us, that is a nonstarter. Drapes are another choice, but again, some of us find them to be just too much. Enter panel blinds, also known as panel tracks. This ever more popular solution for coverings for very large windows or sliding doors may just be what you are looking for.

As their name suggests, these are sliding panels of 7-, 11- or even 17-inch widths. They mount on tracks either within the door frame or on the wall next to it. The panels have a great, modern look to them, and they can easily be modified to suit your style.

Like their more prosaic cousins, vertical blinds, panel blinds slide back and forth over the sliding glass door opening. The panels are often made of fabric and can be matched to your window blinds, a nice design touch. Because they are flat sliding panels of a specific width, the "stack" they create, the area they take up when they are opened, is significant. It will cover a good deal of the glass door or the wall next to it depending on how they are installed. One highly functional aspect of traditional vertical blinds is that they can tilt or rotate to allow more or less light into your home, but panel blinds cannot tilt or rotate, so you have to be comfortable with the amount of light the material lets in.

Because the panels are fabric, they offer a huge variety of colors, textures and looks. Their sleek, angular appearance gives them a modernity that many other window treatments lack. Whereas draperies can be a bit overwhelming, panel blinds are beautiful yet understated. There are scads of options when it comes to window covering for sliding glass doors, but panel blinds are an unusual choice that work beautifully with minimalist design styles.