If switching to a knob would work for sure, that would be the easiest solution. Would an egg-shaped knob work?

Would 1-inch blinds on the french doors look odd?

Given that my tiny 2 year old can now reach and operate the standard round doorknobs on all my doors, I wouldn't hesitate to change the levers to knobs. In fact, I CHOSE knobs over levers when we were remodeling. I am a serious safety nut - my kids rear face in their carseats well into the toddler years, to give you an example. If you are worried about safety and children, I wouldn't even consider 2" blinds unless they were cordless, since they can be very dangerous.

Thank you, scoutfinch. Levers can definitely be too easy for children to use. On the Andersen french doors, however, the knobs are apparently too difficult to be turned easily enough by children and the handicapped in the case of an emergency when every second counts---a fire, for example. So the knobs vs. lever issue seems to be a case of pick your own poison, too easy vs. too hard to use depending on the anticipated circumstances. We are empty nesters so we are not too worried right now about cords but the brand we are planning on getting have "break away" cords that detach if a weight as heavy as a child pulls against it. I'm sorry I forget the exact weight but these have been approved by whatever government agency is in charge of this.

I tried to find some pictures of my double french doors with my 2 inch blinds. They are secured at the bottom so when I open the door they don't wobble. I also have levers. The handles fit between the slats but stick out enough to open the door without problem. Is your door used frequently? Depending on the cost I am not sure if it's worth the extra money. If you find that it bothers you could you put a new handle on??

Been there, done that.

I had two inch blinds with Anderson french doors with lever handles. You can purchase extenders that add just enough room for a man's hand to grasp the handle nicely. They are pricey but I have three sets of doors so that is why it was hard financially. I think they were $15ish. It is a little round cylinder that goes on.

Then we changed to shutters to match rest of house. We again used 2" because any larger and the louvers would hit the door glass. The windows in house are all 4" but they all look fine together. We opted to not use those halfmoon cutouts for the louvers and just had them put the flat pc that goes across the door for support right were the handle is. Again, with the extender there is just enough room for a man's hand to open the door.

Here is another picture that may show the handles better.

Hoyamom, thank you for the beautiful pictures. That's exactly what I hope ours will look like. Shannon, thanks for the information. Do you know what size extenders you have? Andersen said they have a 3-3/4", a 4-3/4", and a 5-3/4" size and of course they also get progressively more expensive. It was also difficult to understand from them whether the extender extends symmetrically on both sides of the door or only on the interior where we need it. Does it only extend the inside? Thanks, again for all your help.

Sounds like a salesman's trick to get you to spend more money to me.

I don't like to underestimate safety issues, but this sounds like a non-issue to me, unless you are seriously handicapped and can only use levers. Even then, a doorknob seems like it would be the least of the issues at hand. In the kind of emergency you're talking about, no one will consider the blinds, if they even use that door. Is that door the only option for escape? Also, if you have to turn a separate lock, as you do in Hoya's door (and in all of my doors, too), how hard is it to turn a knob? Do you have levers on every door of the house, so this is a decor issue? Levers are a constant safety issue when children are in the house because they are so easy to open.

Hoyamom, your room is lovely.

Anyway, I hope I don't sound like an old scold.

Sherry

has anyone come up with any new ideas on what to do about doors handles and 2" blinds on patio doors? I just had new ones installed and nobody thought to tell me my lever handles were going to interfere with the blinds! I am so upset.... and this is the only site I have seen where this is addressed. it's too late to go with 1" - I have to accommodate these somehow.

daimondjudge, we're in the same boat. 2" wood blinds interfering with the lever handles on our french doors. Were you able to solve your issues? We are working on figuring out the best solution. An oval cutout is an option we've been told, however, we have louver blinds not shutter. Unfortunately I've not been able to locate a picture on the internet, only cutouts with the shutter blinds. I've read above about putting an extender on the lever, but I'm not so sure about that.

We changed our lever handles to round ones and it is better but we still have to open carefully or our hands will knock the blind out of track. We got the blinds without holes - i.e. the strings don't go through the slat, the slat just sits on the string with a little notch to hold it in place - also a nightmare the seller didn't tell us about. They are perfectly stable on the windows but not on the doors that we use often.

I researched the extenders but they were expensive and I couldn't find one I was sure would fit our lever handles so we went with the new round ones.

We also thought about cutting out a space for the lever but I just couldn't envision it looking right. Good luck; I'd love to hear what you come up with!

Thanks for your quick reply diamondjudge. I think we're going to take a stab at the cutouts as we prefer not to change our levers to knobs. Keep ya posted! If they turn out nicely, I'll attach a photo :-)

Just my opinion, but I think changing the handles would look much better than the cutout.

It's a gamble for sure RoseAbbey, so we're going to keep the existing blinds just in case they don't look aesthetically nice...that way we still have the option of changing to round handles.

We had 2" blinds and levers on our french doors and didn't have any problems using the doors. Granted, we didn't use the doors that often and when we did I just closed the blinds to make using the lever handles easier.

Thanks for the feedback annztoo. Unfortunately we've got a really tight space between the lever and door...we can open them, but with care. We've been told Honeycomb or silhouette blinds may be more conducive, but we want to be able to actually "see" out.

We have 1 1/2 inch blinds mounted on our French doors. We had a lever , which was never a problem. We switched to a round door knob to match the finish in the room, and have not had a problem with it either. I do like doorknobs better than levers though. I find them easier to use.

I hear you karensaylor61, but all of our (many) french doors have levers so I feel like we should stick with them.