postum, Thanks for your input. My problem is, I like everything be it neutrals, colorful, contemporary, traditional, etc. lol. The door opening is 95" x 95" with 2-1/2 inch of trim all around. JCPenney salesperson gave me 100 inches of fabric height so I will have 2-1/2 inches of fabric above the trim. The rod won't have any rings. She said it's easier to slide the curtain without the rings. The curtain will be attached directly to the traverse rod. I'll tell her to go a bit higher. Yes, I do plan to get a longer rod so that the drapes move away from the window. I'll have 6-1/2 inches of fabric beyond the 95" on the left and 10" on the right (door opens and slides to the right) for a total of 113" of fabric. There will be some overlap against the glass though because I don't want to hit the chair. I have 64 inches from the side of the door opening to the wall where the chair is. The chair is placed at a 45 degree angle in the corner. About the liner. I just wanted a second opinion. I never got custom curtains before. Thanks. :) oceanna, All the furniture have the same cherry finish: 4 poster bed, a tall armoire, a 5 drawer chest, 2 nightstands, and the lingerie chest in the corner. Bedding is all white including the duvet cover. There are no pictures or anything else for inspiration. My bedding also includes some stripes and florals. What complicates matters is that some of the floral stuff have a white background. The custom floral chair slipcover has to be replaced because it strunk. I might go for neutral there too. I want the bed to be the focal point. The reason I wanted a neutral light ivory curtain is that I can I can change out my duvet cover and shams without worrying about the curtain color. And the ivory curtain will hopefully contrast nicely with some paint I have in mind. Complication #2 is the tan carpet, which I happen to love but it's hard to decorate around that color. It's new and came with the house. Having very white walls looks very harsh in my house and looks much whiter than in the pic. Nothing seems to look good against it. Ivory against white. Dark against white. That's what I meant by clash. It may be the wrong word to use. lol. I know I'm approaching this the wrong way. I have to get protection from the sun soon. I only had 30 days to close and didn't have time to choose paint colors first. I could always change out the ivory curtain and rotate it with something else. The only thing in the house that inspires me greatly is my tile floor throughout the rest of the house: a lookalike travertine porcelain tile by Daltile, color is Pietre Vecchie. Was thinking of a Tuscany look with faux painted walls but I'm getting white shutters for most of my windowss so I guess the Tuscany look is out. The mood I seek is definitely calm and soothing so I guess I'll stick to the neutrals and try to work in whatever bedding I have. When I get the chance, I'll post better pics which will include the entire room and the other side of the room. I tried looking at the photo galleries but I couldn't find anything. As I'm typing this, I just pulled up the iVillage Home Inspirations Gallery on another screen. Is this what you meant? It's very helpful with great pictures. Thanks so much for the tips. I'll be back with more pics of the room and some of my bedding stuff too! lindybarts, Thanks a bunch for the photo. I'm going to learn how to do that too. So resourceful of you. :) The colors do look good, don't they? From the photo, I do prefer the darker shade but DH likes lighter colors because it gets so hot out here. I have to go back to the store and finalize my order soon. If I go darker, it might limit my choices of paint color. Thanks again. One last question. Sheers or no sheers? On a separate traverse rod? Will it be overkill for my sliding door? Or should I keep it simple with a single curtain?

I am not a professional but will give you some advice based on my experiences. I made a pinch pleated drape for my large sliding glass door several years ago. We have a wood overhang outside which blocks some of the afternoon sun. I did not line the drape but I did use buckram in the header. The fabric was medium weight home decor cotton...not super thick. After sewing the header, there was a lot of stiffness & thickness in the header for the pleats. If I was to have also included blackout lining in that header, it would have been too heavy & thick for me to work with. It may be a good idea to make a separate blackout lining in your case. I would make the lining about an inch less (than the finished drape) in width as well as length. I have sewn a small window panel that included blackout lining sewn in to it. I did not do pinch pleats for this panel. I used rings & clips instead. The blackout lining was inserted into the header before sewing. I used a double fold of the fabric at the header but did not fold the blackout. The blackout goes all the way up into the top of the header. Same idea for the side hems...the fabric is double folded but the blackout is not. The blackout did not need to be sewn at the bottom...it's not sewn in to the hem. Hope this helps a little. Back side of small drape with blackout (rings & clips) Bottom hem and sides

I made a blackout liner for our family room drapes last October or so. We were having a heck of a time with sunlight and shadows on the television screen. Since this needed to be a panel more than 100 inches wide and 80 inches long, I had to sew a seam down the center. I believe I used a 16 needle. Then I went all the way around all 4 sides with my serger, but those had 14 needles in them. BTW, my blackout liner is white on both sides. I didn't bother to hook mine to the drapery panels. Instead, I sewed buttonholes near the top of the liner, and hooked it over the drapery hooks. DonnaR/CA

I know nothing about sewing, so I can't really help with that part of your question. However, my solution was a little different than yours and I'll post it to give you another option. I had a roll-down solar shade with a 5% openness factor (blackout is also available) on my sliding doors in a former home. I had a simple box valance made to hide the top and covered it with the drapery fabric. The draperies were pinch-pleated and hung on a rod above the door, but still behind the valance which allowed me to use a non-decorative rod, offsetting some of the cost of the valance. During the late afternoon, I could roll down the shade and block out much of the sun, but still have some natural light in the room. At night, I could draw the draperies across the doors to create a cozier environment.