I'm sure that most people will say that they're dated, but I have them in my home by the sliders and they're very practical. I have fabric verticals and like them because they tuck out if the way without taking up lots of room, can control the light easily, and the dog can do very little, if any damage to them. I haven't yet found any other window treatment which can meet those requirements.

We don't sell verticals as often anymore, but sometimes they are the best option depending on how you want the window covering to function.

The sliding panels are definitely a more modern option. Do you have any extra wall space beside the door? If wall space is there, I would suggest having the panels go past the edge of the door, so the stack back sits on the wall.

Another option with very little stack back is honeycomb shades in the vertical application.

I have verticals and they are extremely practical. The only downside is when closed, they present usually a bland wall of color. What I love about them is when they are open they take up so little wall space. Mine are mostly open when I am awake and closed during the night when I can't see them anyway. What makes them most dated I think is the mounting hardware--the track and what covers it. Lots of ways to update that. Verticals are so easy to deal with and update with new blinds if some get damaged or you want a new color.

That said, I'm thinking about covering my dining room sliders with roll up bamboo blinds. They also get out of the way easily, they roll UP instead of next to the doors so take up space in a different location. The only reason I'm ditching my verticals in the dining room is we eat in there in the winter and entertain and at night we like the slider windows covered over. The windows are a big black hole on one whole wall otherwise. With the verticals closed they are a big wall of blah blue which is the color of my current blinds. So am looking for something that looks nice when closed. Really updated patterns for verticals nowdays are hard to come by. I looked. My dining room is small so the sliders take up almost one whole side of the room.

There are some situations where vertical blinds are the only window treatment that fulfills all the needs for privacy, light control, and full side-to-side open/close. However, I have had good luck recently with grommet panels because they occupy literally a few inches when open. My dining room has a window 100 inches wide covered by 300 inches of grommet panels. Each side (150 panel inches) occupies 6 inches when pushed back all the way.

Some years ago, a decorator store in Brooklyn that is no longer in existence would customize blinds by covering each slat with wallpaper. matching the pattern so that when the blinds were closed you saw the pattern. Perhaps you could do the same with vertical blinds. I know that it is time-consuming to do, but the finished effect cold be spectacular.