French Doors have a beauty all their own. They provide us with beautiful views and lots of light; however, what they lack the most is privacy. I don’t know about you, but I would much rather see than be seen, and I want to choose when that is! Personally I think roller shades are an inexpensive yet beautiful option for doors, because they don’t overwhelm the room. They are also pretty low maintenance, which is a huge score for me!
In a previous post, I documented how to measure French doors (or sliding glass doors or windows) first to order or purchase your blinds. If you haven’t read it, please do so and the steps listed in this post will be a piece of cake! You can install roller shades for your French doors in 5 easy steps using the following tools:
- Steel Measuring tape
- Level
- Pencil
- Chalk
- Drill with a 5/64″ drill bit (for wood/drywall) or 5/32″ cobalt tip drill bit (for steel)
- Screwdriver or cordless drill
Step 1 – Unpack Your Shades and Hardware
Sometimes we get overly excited and just want to get started already! However, remember to check all your materials before actually doing a job. What if something was missing and you had to stop in the middle of what you were doing to run to the store or (gasp) call and wait for the missing item to come in? Just check your stuff first and you won’t have the headache!
Usually in a package of hardware comes with: 2 brackets, 4 mounting screws and a chain with a safety clip, or if you have a battery and remote operated set of shades, the remote will be included. If you need to mount your shade into material like aluminum or concrete, you need to supply yourself with the correct type of anchors or steel self tapping screws. You can find these anchors and screws at any home improvement store.
Step 2A – How do You Want to Mount Your Shade?
Shades, blinds or any sort of window/door treatment have different mounting options: outside mounted, inside mounted and ceiling mounted. If you have already purchased your shades, you have already measured your area and know what kind of mounting you want to do. If you are still unsure which one would suit your space ask yourself this:
- Do you want to cover only the glass panels with the ‘window’ treatment? Do you want the frame of the door to show? If yes you would choose an inside mount. The inside mounted treatment has the brackets attached to the inside of the frame of the panel.
- Do you want to cover the entire set of doors or windows when closed? You would choose the outside mounted option. You install these brackets directly into the wall so you would need to use the wall anchors to do this.
- Do you want the shade to completely be free of the entire door frame when rolled up? Then you could go for a ceiling mounted option. I personally think that the ceiling mount is best left for big spaces; I think you could achieve the same intention with the outside mount, but this is a personal preference.
Step 2B – Regular Roll or Reverse Roll?
In deciding how to mount your shade you also should take this into consideration. How do you want your shade to look as you unroll it? Do you want to see the hardware and brackets or do you want to hide them? Do you want the shade close to the glass to allow less light in, or does that not matter as much as the look of the shade?
- Regular Roll – Show off your ‘stuff’. The regular roll allows the fabric of the shade to roll away from you, to the back towards the glass. This is much better if you want your kids to sleep longer on the weekends, because they don’t know it’s daytime yet! If you really do not like the look of this, but need the light blockage, you can look into getting a valance to cover up the roll and hardware.
- Reverse Roll – When the fabric of the shade comes toward you when opening, this is a reverse roll. As stated above, this is more for cosmetic purposes but it does have one advantage. If you are covering a French door that has a decorative handle, and you wanted to cover more than the glass, you would have to do a reverse roll to allow the shade to close over the handle.
Step 3 – Mark the Locations for Your Brackets
Some people like to just eyeball where they want their shades to go, and they succeed in doing so. I would like to think I am one of those people, but if I did that, my shades would be totally off center and probably uneven. From experience I have learned the value of measuring before I do any sort of drilling.
- For a French Door:
- The first thing I do on the door is measure the center of each glass panel on each door.
- Next, insert your shade (rolled all the way up) into both brackets, and measure the center of the top of the assembly. Mark the center with a piece of chalk.
- Hold your shade up to match the center of the door to the center of the shade and make sure you are level.
- Now you can mark your bracket holes. Because on a door you are doing an outside mount you will mark the two holes that are in a straight line on the bracket, not the diagonal ones.
- For Glass Panels Around Your Doors:
- You would do an inside mounted shade for each. In this case, you don’t have to measure the center because the shade is bought to fit inside the frame.
- Measure at least 1/4″ away from the top of the frame and the roller shade fully rolled up to allow you enough leeway to lift the shade into the brackets.
- Figure out how far in you want to mount your shades. Remember you have to install them far enough in so the entire roll will not be sticking out when rolled up. Make sure you install each shade the same depth in, or it will not be a good look!
- With the roller shade in the brackets, hold up to the panel and mark your brackets’ diagonal holes.
- If like me you have metal panels around the doors (I have the hurricane panels), remember that you need to use self-tapping or self-drilling screws instead of the ones that came with your shade.
Step 4 – Drill Pilot Holes
A pilot hole is the hole you drill first to direct your screws where to go. The purpose of drilling these is to remove any excess material (wood or steel) so the screw will screw easily into place. With wood it also keeps the wood from splitting.
Use the 5/64″ drill bit and, holding your brackets in place, drill your holes. If you are drilling into steel, you will need a cobalt tip drill bit.
Step 5 – Install brackets
Screw all brackets in place with either a screwdriver or a cordless drill. You can use a hammer to just tap the screw in a little to help it ‘catch’ the material it is being drilled into.
Step 6 – Fit Roller Shade Into Brackets
These should easily snap into place. Usually one side of the shade has a spring loaded tip; slide this side into its bracket first (the right side), then the next until they click into place. Lower/extend the blinds to make sure they are working properly.
Step 7 – Tension Device/Hold Down Bracket?
What kind of shade did you purchase? The one that uses a cord, a cordless one that you simply pull on, or a battery operated one? If you have a cord, chances are you need to install the hold down bracket or tension device to limit the possibility of strangulation in little kids.
For a French Door, you would mount a hold down bracket/tension device (which is usually attached to the control cord) down to the bottom of the door, but for shades closer to the wall, you can choose to either mount on the frame or on the wall close to the panel. Usually this comes with two screws.
First have your roller shade completely lowered. Hold the tension device on the door, on the door frame or on the wall where it will not interrupt the lowering or raising of the shade. Do not install this device lower than needed where you would have to stretch or pull on the cord to install it. That would cause more wear and tear to the cord.
Mark your holes, drill pilot holes and screw the bracket into the door, frame or wall.
And you are done! Wasn’t that easy? And they look so professional. My motto? If you can do it yourself, at least give it a go.