The Ambria is really dark. We had planned on hanging them on the screened porch, but after we hung one it was obvious it made it too dark. Ended up getting a lighter bamboo at Home Depot.

A replacement glass insert for the door with incased microblinds cost me about $125 seven years ago (no idea what they cost today). I highly recommend them - I still love it as I never have to clean the blinds, lol, and they open at the touch of a button!

I can't remember her name, but a regular here who was building a new home put them in her wall of windows on the back side - several on either side of a fireplace - who was that? I've slept since then ;-)

HTH

Natal - I'll check out Home Depot. Did you get a medium color or light light? I liked the 'fruitwood' color but I think they only were the roll up shades and they didn't look like they'd hold up over time.

Greenthumbfish - I've seen those clip on things with the blinds in the glass and originally wanted to get those but they're almost $200 a piece. :( It's just not in our budget at this point or something I want to save the money for.

Maybe these?

Here is a link that might be useful: Natural Kiawah Roman Shade

If I make a valance it will be most likely the same fabric that my stool cushions and valance over the sink is. OR maybe the same material as my soon to be recovered chairs.

I can't find a pics on my computer but here's the online shot.

Valance and stool cushion
{{!gwi}}

Soon to be chair covers
{{!gwi}}

IRL they match quite nice.

That's it.

Alisha, I just bought some roller shades from JCP.com (outlet) four two sets of french doors in our Gentlemen's Parlor. Wish I would have bought four more for out other sets of french doors, but I had other plans for them. These are so nice I'd change those plans. I've not gotten them installed yet. The only think I don't care for about them is the housing is a silver tone. For the price they are I'll paint them to match the doors.

I saw them in a Penney's store while on vacation in June, but they were custom order only and the price was way over my budget. I was shocked to see them so inexpensive online. In the outlet, no less! I've linked you to them below...

Here is a link that might be useful: Seagrass Roller Shade

Natal - Very nice! Thanks for posting your photo. Do you raise your every day? I'm assuming they're holding up well. Can you see in from the outside with them? I was surprised with my sister's you couldn't see in. It was nice to have the light filter though.

Justgotabeme - Thanks for that link! I'll have to check out JCP also. They're prices online are usually pretty good.

Love these from Target!

{{!gwi}}

Oooo Target. I forgot about Target. I was trying to keep a one track mind so I didn't end up all over the place. :) I'll check those out too.

Sheesharee, at night you can see in when the porch lamps are on. We mainly bought them for sun control. Our once shady yard is now full sun. I only occasionally raise/lower. Considering they're exposed to the elements they're holding up pretty well. I was going to buy similar ones (inside mount) for the keeping room, but after a year and a half I'm getting used to no window treatments there.

I love all your ideas and would to share my pleated shades I purchased from JCP. They are easy to mount, inexpensive and filter sun rays as well as they serve as an accent to my windows. I also put valances on top, as they are concealed behind the treatments.

I also use them in my kithcen. When I puchased them last year they were discontinued, but might be in your areaa. Good Luck with your ideas and I love this forum, it has given me great ideas and I wanted to share mine. I don't know how to add my pictures but I will attempt that later!

Hmm.. after looking, do they make a natural material that doesn't allow you to see in at night? That's the main reason we wanted something. I wonder if you can see in my sister's door at night.

After looking I see Lowes does have this privacy liner. I suppose I shouldn't buy something you can see through. Wonder how well the liner stays?

Also I've noticed a lot of blinds need to be an inside mount. Mine aren't deep enough for that so I'll have to get an outside mount.

Here is a link that might be useful: Liner

Justgotabeme, I really like the blinds from JC Penney outlet. We have a pair of French doors from kitchen into sunroom. They are insulated metal French doors (glass in middle, white metal frame around). Would these still work? We were wondering what to put here. Can we still mount on a metal door, or would we mount on trim above?

Also not sure if these are just light filtering (not darkening). Do you know?

Amy

Shesharee,
I forgot to say our French doors are almost identical to yours. Except the hinges are on outside, with lever handles. Do yours go directly outside? Ours go into our sunroom, and from kitchen, so not as concerned about total privacy shades. Good luck with yours, I like the fabric above!

Amy

Provenance - Thanks! Ours leads outside but we don't use that door often. We'll eventually have a patio etc but for now and probably for a long time that door won't be used.

Natal - After looking a bunch of different shades and mauling the color over I think I'm going to order the ones like you have. Since my area has two wood tones going on I think that might be my best choice. Can they be mounted outside? It doesn't say online. There's not enough room to mount them inside. The lip isn't big enough.

Amy, I don't know for sure if they are light filtering or room darkening, but I just pulled out a bit of one shade that I had opened and held it up to bright sunlight. No light shown through the shade itself. The back side looks similar to a room darkening liner. They are made from cotton with a grass clothe look.

I just checked the instructions and took a look at the brackets. It's seems like the installation will be extremely easy. Just two brackets with two screws each for the 24 inch size. For our wood doors I'll just have to predrill the holes. Not sure about steel doors. You'd have to check with someone wiser than I for that. It does come with those plastic anchors, but I would guess that't not what you'd need. I'm sure your local hardware store would have brakets made for steel doors.
I must say the smooth rising is a plus. None of the pop and snapping you can get with regular roller shades. These rise slow and smooth with a little tug down and to the right or back. If I'm not too tired I'll install them today. I only got three and a quarter hours sleep last night. Too much caffeine to keep me awake to hem hubby's slacks. I buzzed until just before six am and then plop! Out the world until a phone call a little after nine.

shee-we have the shades below from JC Penney. They are not see through so complete privacy at night. There is no privacy liner, just the tight weave of the shade. Have held up good-I think for about 9 months with kids raising/lowering at times. I have the honey color on my porch door and windows in the kitchen.

Make sure if you order from JC penney to google coupon codes first. You can save some $$ that way.

Here is a link that might be useful: jc penney cape cod

Sheesharee, I took a pic so you can see what the mounting hardware looks like. I'm afraid they'd stick out too far if you can't do an inside mount.

Here is a link that might be useful:

Bebetokids - JCP seems to be one of the few sites that tells you if you can do an outside mount. I do like those but was hoping to get something with a little more color variation. They look pretty solid in color. Thanks for posting that. I'll have to look at their site some more.

Natal - Just the valance part would stick out too far? I think even the ones that cam be mounted outside would still stick out?

On second thought, maybe they would work, but the valance will stick out. Although, If you're going to put a fabric valance over it that wouldn't matter.

LOL, that's right. I was thinking personally. I know it would bug me, but I can be anal. ;)

Natal - I can be too so now I'm a bit worried! lol Hmm for example one of the JCP ones that say you can mount on the ouside have valances attached. How deep is your valance part and the main shade? AND if I did the valance I'm wondering if the magnetic rods will stick out far enough? The whole thing might look really odd from the side!!

Bebetokids - I didn't mean to sound snippy in my reply. I know I want privacy yet I'm being picky about the material. Do you have a photo of yours? Is the honey color pretty accurate to the online photos?

I forgot all about the cape cod romans from JCP. I have three of them. Bought them for the Library as hubby approved. Then long after we got them and wheren't installed yet he finally admitted it wasn't the "look" he wanted. He's has finally say over the Library and Gentleman's Parlor since they are both "his" rooms. I pretty have rule of the rest of the home decor.
Luckily most of our windows are the same width so I'll install them in other rooms. We now have wood blinds for the Library. Have you thought about them?
We have two doors with integrated mini blinds. I know it's too late for that for you doors, but have you thought about the the ones you can buy to install over your current doors? I've seen them at Lowes.

Justgotabeme - I thought about wood blinds but then never really saw them on patio doors?

We originally were looking at the clip on ones at Lowes but they were $200 a piece and it's not in our budget for these.

Here's what I was talking about. I couldn't find them at Lowes, but searched until I figured out what to call them and found one size at Home Depot. I've seen the for french doors at Lowes, this is for a kitchen type door with half window. I wished we would have thought at the time to get them for all our full glass doors. We have four sets of french doors, our front door is full glass w/2 full glass sidelites beside the one half glass and one full glass doors we have w/integrated minis. They are wonderful!

Here is a link that might be useful: add on inserted mini blind

I have to ask-what exactly a keeping room and a gentleman's parlor, do tell??? I'm pretty sure we don't have either LOL

Justgotabeme - Yup that's basically what the Lowes ones looks like only longer.

Hellokitty - I'm curious too!

Well I bet you both have a keeping room. Or you'd probably go hungry! It's a kitchen.
As for the Gentleman's Parlor,it's basically a second living area. Victorians often had two parlor. After a dinner party the men would retire to the GP for smoking and conversation that weren't the type a lady should hear. The Ladies would retire to the more feminine Ladies Parlor for conversation and perhaps tea. Our Gentleman's Parlor is more like a family room since neither of us smoke or would allow it in our home.

Guess I should explain the term "keeping". It was usually the warmest place in the home before modern electricity warmed whole houses. So in order for family members to "keep" warm they gathered in there for warm.

Last post for now. I missed your comment about the price Alisha. I must have still been typing.

Alisha,

If you are interested in privacy control, you could always go with a fabric roman shade, something like this? These are priced low enough that it wouldn't be that much of an investment, and you could probably get a color to coordinate with your other fabric choices for that room.

Here is a link that might be useful: fabric roman shades

Shesharee, the valance sticks out about 2 inches. Something else to consider ... when you do start using the door on a regular basis you'll want to keep the shade from swinging as the door is opened/closed.

Hellokitty, the term keeping room goes back to Colonial days. It's a room that's an extension of the kitchen where the family or visitors can gather. Sometimes it's referred to as a hearth room (if there's a fireplace).

I'm back. In our last home our patio door let in way too much afternoon sun so I added frosted contact paper. It would work for privacy too. Still allows in plenty of light, though luckily it somehow kept out the extra heat. That might be an idea along with your valances. For now at least.

Justgotabeme - It's ok about the price thing. I figured you just missed it. Thanks for explaining room definitions!

Nanny - I have considered some type of coordinating fabric. Those are definitely a good price! For some reason I'm not really loving the solid color romans though.

Natal - It'll be a long time (probably years) until we start using that door. Should be interesting when the time comes. Thanks for the dimensions.

I should also mention, I have my furbabies in mind also with this purchase. They love to sit at the windows and look out. Watch the bunnies. lol I have thought about window films etc. but I've turned away from those options because of them.

I'm still leaning strong towards the ones like Natal's.

Sheesharee, I just saw these on the Kohls web site:

http://www.kohls.com/kohlsStore/furnitureandhomedecor/curtainshardware/energyefficientblackouts/PRD~c16359/Radiance+Privacy+Window+Liner.jsp

It is apparently a liner for natural shades that will filter in some sun but provide privacy. You could put these behind your natural shades.

Just thought I'd share, in case this was helpful.

Amy

Here is a link that might be useful: Privacy Window Liner

sheesharee-no snippiness taken! Here are a couple of pics of my shades:

Sorry for the last pic-light is coming in the windows and hard to take with flash. The first pic the color is true. As you can see no light shines through. Thought you might like a pic with the shade pulled all the way up to show how long it is. Mine does not flop with the door opening when it's down because it is behind the handle so it stops the swing. This color they used to carry in the stores so you could see IRL. HTH!

Provenance - Thanks for the link! I'm going to wait to see how they are once up.

Bebe- Thanks for posting those. They look very nice!

After doing some shopping over the weekend for shades I've decided I'm going to order the ones from Home Depot like Natal has. I really like coloring in them.

I actually bought a green roman from Lowes. It has difference shades of wood reeds going horizontal. I knew it would look either really good or really bad. It's going back! Clashed bad with the wall. I even looked at the brown Jute ones at Target but they just looked like cat hair magnets!

I'll post some photos once I get them up! Thanks again for all the help!

Natal - My blinds came. I like them! I was going to attempt to do the install myself but I can't even figure out how to mount them on the wall! The way it shows, I think the side metal part will be exposed outside of the valance!?? I know I was considering valances anyhow but if the hardware is going to show like I think I'll def. be adding them.

I'll have to get some help sometime this weekend.

Bebe - I'm getting ready to order those same shades from JCP! What color are yours? Are they Golden Oak? Have you seen the the Rosewood?

Yours look great!

Sheesharee, I'm hoping that was a typo when you said how do you mount them on the wall! I was also a bit concerned when you were talking about mounting them somehow with a magnetic rod.

Wood Roman Shades will need to be installed using L brackets drilled into the door and then the blind attaches to the L bracket. These are fairly heavy blinds, so a magnetic rod of some sort would not hold them.

Did you order an outside mount blind? Some of the blind companies offer a side valance piece that covers up the side blind mechanism for an outside mount. I don't know if HD does that - if you specified it when ordering it might be part of the hardware packet. There should be directions on how to install them. One set of blinds I ordered came with no instructions, so I had to call and have them mail me some. I was not happy!

Caroleoh - Haha it was late last night. Wall was a typo. I wanted to say door. The valances I might use I'll hang above the panels on a magnetic rod. They would match the one above my sink.

I messed with it one last time before heading to bed and figured it out. I'm not sure why it was difficult last night! Glad I didn't try to install yet. :)