Wish I could afford to replace ours- I'd give them serious consideration. A friend got them for their patio door & love them. Like me, she hates cleaning blinds.

Wonder how well they would hold up & for how long though. If they malfunctioned past warranty date would purchaser be stuck with whatever position they were in at the time?

Suzi

We have them in two of our doors. The doors themselves are not what I would have choosen but the integrated minis are a dream! I love them. Our windows are double hung so I don't believe we could have gotten them, but if I'd have known at the time we built I would have checked into it. That and the fact we have a full glass entry door and four sets of french doors that blinds would have been a perfect solution for.

As for cats and blinds, these are the only way to go. I have three just over a year old kitties and if the regular blinds are closed they paw at them in order to see out.

As for remote control, I'm guessing here, I bet you can with the Pella ones at least. Our are only open and closed manually. They do not raise and lower, but really I don't think that's necessary.

Good luck!

Here are ours. They are Masonite brand and the glass and blinds have a 5 year warranty. If something happens to them, they simply come out and replace them. We bought them from Home Depot. I wish I had the blinds in all the windows too!! I haven't lived with them yet, but I have a feeling I'll be very happy with them.

This is the single side door
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Double back doors

We have double French doors in our family room and a single door in the master bed room going to the backyard. We bought the blinds in a frame from Lowes or HD for about $100 each and it took less than two minutes to install each. They never get dirty, are easy to maintain, allow privacy or light and are kitty-proof. They are also paintable, although we left them white. Look them up on Home Depot's webpage, I tried to find the link but they are down for site maintenance right now.

We've got the pella brand & they are nice with a few glitches, but ours are 12 years old & they've definitely improved the operation (on the raise/lower type).

If you get the kind that cannot be raised & lowered then realize that your view will always be partically obscured. Just a small price to pay for the ease of maintenance. I'd definitely put them in again.

michelle, I've seen those and they look like they would work great to add to an already existing door.

Since hilltop mentioned this about the raising and lowering, I wanted to add ours raise, lower and are adjustable.

Oh, I am so sorry! I forgot that I posted this! We had a couple of long distance phone calls on Saturday and one on Sunday and all of them, plus weekend errands, took my mind away from this forum! Thank you for your replies. What I'm reading is that you like your blinds and would get them again. The question of malfunctioning and length of usable life is something to ask about.

Justgotabme - I understand your kitty issue. Our male is the one who "must" have access; the female just tags along. But he will paw our den shades until they are twisted back, make peek-through marks with his black fur on the drapes if they're not open, and rattle the up-down bar on the shutters to try to see outside. Not that I decorate around the cats - but I do, sort of. Makes life so much easier.

Brutuses - Thanks for posting your pictures. The doors are very handsome. I'd already admired your beautiful fireplace and didn't notice the blinds in the doors. Oddly enough I have decided that our MBR will either have warm cream or very soft green walls (we have a lot of off-white woodwork and some o.w. furniture). Would you mind telling me which paint colors you used? Do you plan to have any fabric treatments on the doors? And we'll go to HP and check their stock. Our GC is suggesting either Pella or Anderson, IIRC.

Michelle - I'll check the websites. However, we do have to replace our windows, so I'm not sure that adding the blinds on would work.

Believe it or not, I hadn't thought about the cleaning factor. That's actually a must; what a relief to never clean blinds again. And I would pay extra if need be, to be able to raise and lower the blinds. Our view is all greenery and good bird activity - it would be a shame to have that obstructed.

Any other suggestions, opinions? TIA once again -

Sable

Sable, the color in the great room is BM Rich Cream. The greens in the foyer are, ceiling BM Grecian Green, walls BM Tree Moss. Here is a photo of the foyer.

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I forgot about the master bath color. It's BM Gray Cashmere, which is not a true green, but up on the walls he has a green cast to it. Here's a photo.

Here's the Grecian Green on the kitchen wall meeting the Rich Creme of the great room wall.

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Here, this on might be better

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Here is RH's Silver Sage I had BM custom mix, in the guest Bedroom

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sable, sorry I forgot to answer the other part of your question about curtains for the doors. I do plan on hanging simple panels, either cotton or linen, on rods to hang on the sides of the doors for softness. Haven't decided yet if I want a solid or some type of print.

I have the doors like brutuses and LOVE them! Mine do not raise/lower, but I really don't miss it. I have a simple valance at the top.

Your cats sound adorable. There's nothing like them, is there? They definitely let you know what they want! Mollee used to wake us up in the morning by banging on the aluminum minis in our master bedroom. When she finally woke us, she'd glare at us until we got up and opened them for her. Whe was the only kitty then.

How could I have forgotten the main benefit and that being "kitty proof".

Brutuses - Thank you for posting your colors. I will be going off to our BM store to get some samples. I especially like the Grecian Green among your greens. I have a RH parsons arm chair at my desk, upholstered in Silver Sage, but it's a bit too blue for me for the walls. And the Rich Cream is lovely, IMO. You can go in so many decor directions when it's combined with white.

Greenthumbfish - I appreciate your affirming what others have said about loving these blinds. We will be having more than a valance because we need the extra insulation of curtains, as the back of the house is barely heated.

Justgota - I love dogs also, but have developed pretty severe allergies to them, so now we're cats only, and yes, there's nothing like them. The quirkier the better! The male is especially excitable when the raccoons come around in the middle of the night. They take a particular path around the house and he knows just where they're going. So he races from room to room and window to window, tracking them, his tail all big and fluffy. Both cats are now banished from our MBR at bedtime, because he refused to stop rattling the shutters at 5 am - like your Mollie - and DH refused to be disturbed. They have adjusted well, though.

Thanks, everyone, for the good feedback -

Sable