Drapery Styles for Sliding Glass Doors

Traverse Rod

• Drapes hung from traverse rods have channels sewn into the top, holding metal hooks that attach to loops on runners in the rod. A drawstring opens and closes the drapes. The drapes can be expensive for designers who don't sew their own, but they have the advantage of being available in any fabric pattern or weight. Lighter fabrics such as gauze don't lend themselves well to use on traverse rods, because the elaborate stitching the channels require overwhelms the fabric.

Horizontal Blinds

• Roman blinds or balloon shades add a formal touch to a room. The entire blind or shade rises when the drawstring is pulled and folds itself into a series of horizontal creases or graceful arches. The blinds come in a variety of fabrics and patterns, and many are lined, making them a good choice for insulating the door from the heat or cold. If you're unable to find a single blind that stretches across the door, buy two or three smaller ones. This way you can have a single blind open for light while leaving the others closed.

Vertical Blinds

• Vertical blinds, made from strips of stiff plastic, wood or vinyl covered in a variety of fabrics and finishes, hang from a track above the door. The blinds' vertical, rather than horizontal, orientation makes it possible to rotate the slats without opening the blinds completely. A drawstring or wand both opens and closes the blinds and rotates the slats. Vertical blinds offer complete privacy when they're closed and let light in when the slats are rotated. The blinds come in enough finishes to match most contemporary decors.

Cafe Rod

• Use decorative dowel hangers to install a dowel across the top of the door. Select a width that's strong enough to hold curtains but narrow enough for large cafe rings to slip over. Using cafe rings makes it easier to open and close the drapes, since there is no mechanism as there is in a traverse rod. This versatile window treatment lends itself to almost any design scheme, since the fabric and pattern choices for the drapes are almost limitless. Even flat sheets work as drapes with this method.

Draping

• Hang a long dowel at the top of the sliding doors, or attach a series of large, decorative rings above the top molding. Wind fabric loosely around the dowel and let it hang down the sides. For a cottage look, use the branch of a tree in place of the dowel. Run a length of fabric through the rings so that it droops slightly in between the rings, and let the ends hang to the floor on either side of the sliders.