We have a patio door w/cordless, cellular shades (Graber brand). The look is similar to a French door but the panel on the left side is stationary. Consequently, the door part (on the right) opens toward the stationary panel on the left. The problem w/the cordless cell shades is that they stuck out too far from the stationary panel and from the door. This meant they would hit each other whenever the door was opened too far (it couldn't open all the way due to the shades). This happened a lot, unfortunately, because it was the door to the backyard and we go outside frequently. We've had the shades about four years; in the last six months or so, one of the cords snapped on the shade on the door so the blind would no longer stay up. We opened and closed these shade a lot b/c I liked them open but DH wanted privacy. Another thing about these shades is that they clanked against the door whenever it was opened or closed. I found that very annoying. I'm looking to replace these shades with panels on flush mount rods. Incidentally, we have a window with a corded cellular shade purchased at the same time and it's working great.

We are doing 10' downstairs/upstairs. But upstairs we have areas where the ceiling drops near the walls in some of the rooms, and lowered on the hallway. We will have cathedral ceilings in the master bedroom and daughter's bedroom, and 2 story ceiling in the family room. We are also in the south, and for reasons I don't need to bore you with, we are not doing ceiling fans on the main rooms (where I will mostly be). So the higher ceiling height will be a nice feature for us. Our previous home had 9' ceilings down and 8' up. 9 was ok (for us), but was not excellent. 8 I think is a bit too low. It all depends on how you live, climate, health, neighborhood style, and personal taste. I think that changing the height here and there throughout the home makes it more interesting, and breaks the feeling of commercial environment.

Hey There: I have to tune in on this topic one more time. Bottom up top down pleated blinds can install in any depth of at least 1/2 inch - and they do not interfere with the cleaning option of the windows - at least our blinds don't do that. We installed hundreds of blinds in 1920th houses in California with the traditional double hung windows - not a problem at all and very clean look.

I'm told requires top or wall mount or the shade will sag. I find that hard to believe. Those headrails are made of really strong metal. Mine are 58" wide and the brackets are installed 50" apart from each other. No sagging in the middle. But I wonder if it's a different problem, like if they are side mounted and that heavy, that the headrail would tilt forward? IDK. Did you get more than one opinion? I'm not doubting what the sales person told you, but I just wonder. Another option would be roller shades. Those can definitely be mounted at the edges, even when really long. IDK what the max length is, but your 47" falls well within it. If you want full privacy but allow light in, "light filtering" white shades should do. For the curtains, normally you'd need to support a rod that long in the middle, so that's a conundrum. How DIY do you want to get? Back when I had an extremely tiny budget (my "ramen noodle" college days), I used metal conduit from home depot for curtain rods, with a 1.25" diameter. They're cheap and strong. You can get them to cut it for you. Spray paint it black or soft gold. Buy separate brackets in a matching color, or spray paint those too. If you think you will ever close the drapes, you need to get ones that are relatively light weight. But in your case it sounds like they're just decorative only? So as long as you always keep them open, the long rod with heavy drapes won't sag. (This sounds like such a hack, but long curtain rods can get really expensive so it's a great workaround.) Here are some good instructions, including how to do the finials. If you don't want to do conduit, I have another idea -- it will cost more but not involve spray painting. Let me know!