Decent quality sliding - or folding sliding doors - will do the job and last more than 15 years. Of course you have to fit them properly for a good seal so choose an experienced fitter, a specialist fitter or buy a door that can be fitted by the manufacturer. As with anything, you get what you pay for. Untreated softwoods are likley to warp over time so treated woods, hardwoods or metal doors will perform well over a longer period.

Timely thread! I just spent the last two months shopping for a replacement patio french door plus a regular door coming into my laundry/mud room entrance. Will share my experiences if it helps. I did not want interior blinds in my french door (which, even though it is on the back of the house, it is my main entrance). Why? I knew I would never close them! We don't need the privacy that much. I did choose interior grids - they may mot look quite as authentic, but they will sure be easier to clean plus no painting. I priced Lowe's "house brands" - Reliabilt and Benchmark (which I think is made by Thermatru), plus Pella and Anderson. I just could not see paying the price for Pella or Anderson. I ended up with ordering Thermatru which, from my research, is a middle of the road (slightly higher end than Reliabilt, but cheaper than Pella and Anderson. I started shopping/researching through a true building supply/door and window shop for Thermatru, but actually ordered from a local small, town building supply store. I am getting it cheaper than the Lowe's house brands. It is going to be around $800. We will install ourselves (not, our handy-man will with the assistance of DH). I am actually replacing an older, 20 year old Thermatru which was metal and metal typically does not hold up that long. It is rusting out at the bottom. On to the mud room. I am replacing a pine wood slab door, which has absolutely no insulating value, but I just wanted a plain-jane fiberglass kitchen type door with the window in the top. I went with a cheaper HD house brand, Masonite, and I did order the blinds in this door. It is not hung yet, but sure looks good. The sales staff in Home Depot and Lowes really vouch for the interior blinds. They all tell me they have very few "failures" and they can be replaced if necessary. When I questioned how well the interior blinds would hold up, one of the sales guys gave this example: "We have a display door set up in the store - every shopper that walks by has to "try them out" so they probably get opened and close approximately 25 times a day and we have not had a failure yet". Makes sense. Just my 2 cents - I highly recommend you look at Thermatru. Tuesday

Hi DM! Here's our floorplan to give you an idea of where some of our FDs are. As you can see the front/main entry opens up to the Gentlemans Parlor. I have lace panels on the front door and it's sidelites like this... They are actually 84 inch length tab top "macrame" panels that I wove through the lace with the bottom rod giving the flounce and ruffle at the bottom or they would have been too long. It worked and I loved it. What you can't see is the frosted contact paper through it. Here's a terrible shot of the door, but you can see the sidelites with the contact paper. It looks much better in person. I took it at night with a flash making it looks shiney, which it's not. This was a temporary treatment when we first moved in. Just a long piece of semi sheer fabric wrapped around the rods and tied in a knot. If I wanted more light I clipped the back part of the fabric behind the knot. Cost less than three dollars with dollar fabric found at Wal Mart while they still had fabric. Here's a close up of the panels I have in the Gentlemans Parlor and the shades that are at the moment the photo was taken inside their housing, which will be painted to match the rod when I have time. As you can see they don't match the main entry window in any way. Oh the walls will be painted to match the curtains when the weather keeps us from work outside. The color there now was to be a basecoat for a faux finish my hubby changed his mind about. The sunroom FDs looked similar to the original temp front door treatment... But will possibly look like this next photo/drawing if I have enough fabric left after making six 90inch panels for the five window across the back of the sunroom. They are button up Roman style shades. As you can see by the above pictures, well other than our home isn't finished yet, that I don't think all the french doors need to be treated in the same way. Though we'll probably find a way to add sliding french/glassed doors between the GP and sunroom because the colors do not blend. Do you have photos or floor plan drawings of how these two sets of french doors set in your home?

Christian Gorga I am looking for a white cellular blind to match Ben Moore white dove trim. I have not yet checked out Smith & Noble. It's a very popular Ben Moore trim color and is muted & has gray and a tiny bit of yellow but reads white in my space. If you know of a good white to match please let me know. Hunter Douglas has a white color called Journal that was close, but reads a bit more cream/yellow. Journal does coordinate though with my walls BM linen white, but I would rather match the trim better in case I change colors down the road. Hunter Douglas did not have many whites in which to choose.