Hi Helen,
Try a Rod Pocket Door Panel
with two rod pockets (1 on top and 1 on bottom). It's traditional and can be vamped up with a pattern or left neutral with white. The possibilities are endless and it's a breeze to change and wash.
Claudia

Hi Helen,

I actually have a similar dilemma - we have a french door leading to our bedroom that is painted over. I want to remove the paint but need some privacy and the idea of a curtain wasn't exciting me. Then I stumbled across this link for adhesive film for windows from an old AT posting I think:

http://www.2jane.com/searchresult.aspx?categoryID=35

I like that it adds some texture to a room but doesn't take over or cover up the beauty of the french door.

Good luck!

I just finished the french door in my guest room yesterday. I saw in a magazine (can't remember which one) that someone had cut up a map and taped it into each window pane. I used double-sided craft paper, cut it to size and used scrapbook adhesive to keep it in place. Total cost was about $14.

Here's a picture:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/51446567@N00/2158940789/

I'm really pleased with how it turned out.

If you don't want to go the curtain route:

Blinds: mount these right to the top of the door. To avoid a large "stack" (no. of inches that the blind takes up when it's in the fully raised position) take a look at the "Reveal" blind from Hunter Douglas. It's a 1" slat blind with a 2" (almost) space between each slat. So visually you don't have lots of little blinds blocking the view. (You have to see it in action to understand how it works.) The advantage in this case is that it's sleek on a french door without taking up much space when fully raised.

If you'd rather not see the blind at all when it's fully raised, talk to a woodworker/carpenter/handyman about building a valence that would cover the fully raised blind. You could paint it to match the door.

As far as wood blinds (or any blinds) clanking too much: you can purchase "hold downs" which mount at the bottom of the french door, on either side of the glass. They're designed to hold the blind in place; the blind can be released from the hold-down easily enough if you want to raise the blind.

I've had good luck with a spray on frosted glass effect. The brand I use is Rustoleum Frosted Glass. It provides me with privacy but doesn't block any light.

If you want to go the window treatment route, you can buy a roller shade at Ikea and have a custom window treatment place cut it down to fit the exact dimensions of your window. In my case, the reduction cost me around $45 and the Ikea shade cost $19, so it turned out to be much cheaper than ordering a custom window treatment from a place like Smith and Noble.

we had roller blinds custom made by smith & noble, fabric on the front, cream-colored on the back, so they blended with the door and were very unobstrusive when up (showing the view), yet very pretty and decorative when down (showing the fabric panels).

i should add -- we went in & out of the doors frequently with blinds both up & down and had no problem with them. they were very heavy, didn't move around, and blocked a lot of light.

Please don't use blinds on a french door.
Ack!
No one bothered to frame 15 pieces of glass with perfectly meitered molding just for it to be covered up!

I suggest, a curtain sheer... with casing on the top and bottom... feed onto very thin rods at the top and bottom and secured above and below the glass.

The sheer curtain will let light in... and allow for privacy to the degree that no one can make out your tuesday underwear through the window.

You can also tie (bunch up)the curtain in themiddle with a tie back to allow for a view when you feel like it.

THANK-YOU!!! Wow, you guys are good. These are all great ideas & so helpful. (Just discovered this site and am so relieved that I'll now be able to stop bugging all of my friends, family & anyone who will listen, about every detail of my apartment.) I'm on deadline at work, but just wanted to say a quick thanks & will respond more thoroughly when I can.

I'm leaning towards a sheer curtain (of sorts) that's kept open most of the time. Perhaps a roman shade made of flowing sheer something that would loosely gather as it's pulled up? Does such a thing even exist?

Thanks & happy new year!
helen

I have a small roller blind for our office, which doubles as a guest room. We only pull the blind down when we have guests. It is really tiny and you don't see it from the hallway when it is up and barely notice it on the other side of the door. Just got it from blinds.com (a site I LOVE). Just make sure to order samples of the fabrics before you order the blinds...they carry a lot of different companies and the quality varies.

i like the roller blind idea in a patterned style, such as a vertical or horizontal stripe, maybe even a laser-cut panel.
consider, frosted contact paper to cover the glass panes. you can choose to leave a few transparent or you can cover them all. this is inexpensive and recommended for rentals. the clean up is much easier than spray frost.

you could frost them.

Hello, I have some trouble with french doors too. I bought the sheer curtains online in Home Depot or Bed Bath and Beyond, I can't remember which. I thought the product I was buying included the fabric and the hardware, but it was only the fabric. I tried looking for the rods at IKEA but the pieces that hold the rods are too long and the curtain would end up being about two inches away from the door.
So my question is, where can I get the rods/hardware necessary to finally install my curtains?

Thank you!

This kind of setup almost begs for a product like this one.

Check out the modern fabric roller shades at www.EcoSmartRollerShades.com - they have free fabric swatches, plus reasonable prices.

They're available at local distributors too. Buying a custom-fitted shade with reasonable opacity will let you keep your privacy and energy-saving shade, too.

Whoops. http://www.ecosmartrollershades.com is the link.