I have faux wood blinds but not on my doors. My blinds are heavy. It seems to me it would take a lot of cord pulling to raise a blind from the floor up 7 feet. And then there is 7 feet of cord to attend to once the blind is up. Doing it twice a day, I wonder how long it would be before a cord broke.

Other options are cellular shades and roller blinds.

JC Penney has woven wood panels for the sliders. I was going to get the bamboo roman shades for the windows and the matching panels for the sliders. They had some in white too, I believe. Good luck!

I also have several of the faux wooden blinds in my house. I agree completely with graywings that they would be too heavy and impractical to use for a sliding door. For my patio slider we've decided we don't really need the privacy so have used a valance on top which coordinates with valances layered on top of adjacent family room windows that have the blinds. We also have a slider in our master bedroom where we do need privacy. There we have drapery panels which part in the center rather then the usual traverse rod and stack back against the walls to either side of the slider. A nice look which is not too expensive is to use grommet top drapes, again one to either side and stack them back against the walls so that when open they completely cear the slider so you have access to the door to go in and out. The advantage of this is that with the grommet top style you can get a nice, tight stack to either side--which, if you have a condo, may be working with more limited wall clearances. Keep in mind the wooden blinds can always have a layered look with stationary panels to either side of the window which would coordinate with the treatment you use with the slider. WTs add color, texture and interest to a room--esp. if your windows don't have moulding or other architectural interest.

We have the JCPenney woven wood panel track on our big slider. I added a couple of 96" panels and valances (I had to make them from additional panels because valances were not available) to add more color and softness to the room. As you can see they do not block all light or provide complete privacy.

In the past, we had a sliding door with verticle blinds but I think many consider them dated today. I think horizontal wood or faux wood blinds would not work well on a sliding door. I'd probably just use panels with those drapery rings that have clips and hang them on a pretty decorative rod, or use curtains with gromets. Both would slide open and closed easily.

My mom has something that is sort of a combination of a verticle blind and a sheer curtain. They look just like sheers, but have a verticle blind tucked inside that can be adjusted with a wand or cord for light control like you would regular verticle blinds. They can also be pulled completely open or closed like a curtain. I'll add a link to what looks similar to what my mom has. She said they were expensive, though.

Here is a link that might be useful: Link to Levelor sheer verticle blinds.

My neighbor had real wood blinds on her slider (which are a lot lighter than the faux wood blinds) and I can remember seeing her trying to open those things with all her might. She had to wrap the cords around her hands and it was a lot of pressure. She hated them. We moved so I don't know if she ever replaced them. So I would agree that real or faux wood blinds are too heavy for that use.

The only time I had a slider, I just hung a pair of simple floor-length rod-pocket curtains with a header, on a big wood pole with finials. It looked beautiful (but then I love that look, being very traditional). The pocket was loose enough to use the curtains as curtains, and I pulled them shut at night or when wanting privacy. I think I had a pair of metal hold-backs at the side but am not sure. I may have just let them hang loose at the sides when open.

I bought curtain wire with clips (ikea) and mounted them just above the sliding door frames. Then purchased two curtain panels that hang well and are light in weight, tacked them together in a few spots to create the illusion that they are one and they slide back and forth easily and when pulled all the way open, they take up very little space.

I still have verticals that I still like and they do the job. If you want the wood blinds you can get them with two on one header but it still may be to heavy to open and close all the time. Do you have room to put up drapes and have them back enough when you open the door?

Thank you for your responses. I so enjoy hearing from you. I read through your responses and weighed each idea. I think what I'm leaning toward are the Levelor blinds that are covered with sheer material as you suggested, Karoloke, at least that's my thoughts for now. That way I could open the blinds and let all the light in, it would allow easy access to open the slider to the deck, and it would give me a "white" look that would coordinate with the faux white blinds I have on my other windows.

I purchased my blinds when J C Penney had their Levelor sale and I'll wait for another sale to see just how much the cost will be.

Again thanks for taking the time to write; I value and appreciate your opinions.

Since you have wooden shutters, have you considered the wooden shutters on your sliding glass door? I am getting those on my sliding glass door and they look really awesome. You can get them so that they open a couple of ways but I opted for getting them where they all slide to one side one behind the other.

You can google and find pics of how it would look online.