This is our house we just sold pictured, for the sliding door we did curtain panels that I could easily pull together to add privacy/sun control. 2 panels from target.

{{!gwi}}

We have curtains on ours. Just be sure to pick a rod that is one solid piece on the parts you would pull the curtain (as opposed to several pieces connected together.) The curtains can get snagged where the connections are, otherwise.

Hello,

We did exactly what rtwilliams did, and it works great.

I have a curtain rod with grommet drapes. We use the door constantly (letting the dog in and out) and like to keep the curtains closed in the evenings, so it gets a lot of use. I don't have a solid one piece rod, so the grommets sometimes hang up a little, but they move fairly easily anyway and it hasn't been a problem. I chose outdoor drapes because the dog tends to rub against the curtains and I wanted to be able to wash them and generally avoid stains.

Thank you. Prickly interesting point. I hadn't thought about outdoor fabric. Good suggestion as we have large babies!

I used a black-out, roll-down solar shade under a very simple valance that was painted to match the woodwork.

I also use drapery panels on my sliders from the family room to the deck. Mine are not meant to close, though. They are just decorative and we use the door often for letting the dog out.

Fun- do you have a picture?
Rocket- thanks for chiming in. Unfortunately we need some privacy at night and early morning. Although it seems other GWers love the working drapery panels. At this point anything will be an improvement! Our youngest giant schnauzer has no interests in drapes or blinds or shades, however he has pulled off at least three vertical blinds!! He is very entertained by bringing us his new "toy" only to watch us reattach to the track. One could not be reattached so we had to move one from the back to the very visual center!

We used the same style drapes rtwilliams has. They are so easy to open and close. Got ours at BBB.

I have a box valence with a roll down rattan shade made to fit the width of the door. It is the same window treatment as the rest of the windows in the room, so it doesn't look mismatched. I have a dog that also uses the door all day long, so I didn't want floor length curtains either.

I don't have a picture, sorry, because I've moved since then and the MLS pictures don't show the doors. Each of the bedrooms and the living area had wide sliding doors and they were all the major source of natural light for those rooms so I didn't want draperies. Also, they faced the view, so I wanted them to be as unobstructed as possible during the day. I used a higher openness factor in the living area because I wasn't as worried about privacy.