No advice other than to be prepared for sticker shock from Hunter Douglass as well as Smith and Noble. I will say I have seen some beautiful drapes on large bedroom doors. I will see if I can find some pictures for you.

I've used Pottery Barn grommet drapes to cover my family room's ~10' sliding glass door / windows. We previously had vertical blinds. The grommets allows the curtains to collapse very tightly when pulled aside and also allow the drapes to slide easily. If I had sliders in my bedroom, I would definitely go with similar grommet drapes.

Pottery Barn has grommet drapes in several different materials and colors.

I agree with the grommet panel idea. We have several large sliders throughout our house and have grommet panels on all 4 of them. The panels are an inexpensive solution if you don't need to constantly adjust them.

I have grommet bamboo panels in my great room. I really like how they look, but they would not be great for privacy unless lined.

In my guest room, I have simple grommet panels that I bought at Home Good for $10 each. They slide very easily so that guests can open and close them each evening/morning and provide sufficient light control and privacy.

Good luck!

I have 8' slider on a 12' wall in my MBR. We opted to do pinch pleats on rings and have the rod extend beyond the slider in both directions so that the WTs would stack back on the wall and leave the slider clear when open. As we have some privacy issues, we also did a layered WT with sheers below, but from reading your description, it sounds like that may not be needed in your situation.

These are some old pictures of the WTs after they were just installed.

Sheers closed:

Sheers open:

That advantage of the grommet style WTs as recommended above is that they can stack back into a very tight stack which if you have only 12" wall clearance to either side, that will still allow for clearance. Personally, I prefer the texture and softness of fabric WTs vs. a vertical blind type of solution that companies such as Hunter Douglas sell. It's also much less expensive as well.

My WTs are from JC Penneys. They also sell the grommet style as well. It's definitely worth looking into before committing the funds towards HD.

Hunter Douglas has some sort of sheer sliding screens that would work well for sliders. The name escapes me, but I'm pretty sure they are the same material as their Designer Screen Shades (not sure how many "fabrics" they come in). Our WT guy told me about them for my friend when he was here measuring one of our windows.

I think IKEA has some sliding panels also.

Thanks for the input everyone! I do like the idea of doing a curtain kind of WT but I'm not sure I can sell DH on them. His main concern is darkening, but it seems like we should be able to get panels with a darkening liner in them, right?

If we did do curtains on the sliders, would we be locked into curtains for the other 6 windows in the room?

Our entire house has no WTs yet (except for a roller shade in the baby's room and some hideous vertical blinds on one livingroom window) so the visit from HD will be helpful for other places in the house. We're anxious to get the new bedrooms done so we can move into them (just finished a 2-story bedrooms & baths addition).

As catmom mentioned, Hunter Douglas has a new product that I am going to look into for my new slider (to be installed next week). It's called Vertiglide. The insulation value is supposedly impressive, and I like the clean look it provides.

My slider will be in the DR, and used frequently. I don't have a lot of room on either side for drapes and am not crazy about drapes hanging down next to the sliders for purposes of dust, though I like the look.

The rest of my house will have up/down shades and my front door has a blind inside the glass, so I think this lends itself to an integrated look, also. It might end up one of my splurge points.

Here's some other fun options:

Shutters for Sliders (The Shutter Store)

Modern Panels for Sliders by Bali (sun darkening)

Here is a link that might be useful: HD Vertiglide

Bali Blinds has a great website for viewing and selecting window treatments and they have a section called "Vertical Solutions". Options go way beyond the 80's vertical blinds. The sliding panels that Steph2000 mentioned are updated and easy to open and close for sliders that see a lot of action. Use their online tools for sample selection and have Bali send the samples for free.

Here is a link that might be useful: Bali Blinds Veritical Solutions

The HD ones I meant were the Skyline Gliding Window Panels. The Vertiglides look nice, too though.

Here is a link that might be useful: HD window panels

Thank you so much for all the ideas!! We had the Hunter Douglas rep here on sat and she recommended the honeycomb vertiglide (1st pic Steph posted). I wish she had mentioned the panels cat-mom suggested so I could have looked at samples, but I suspect she didn't because we want to maximize the view. Anyway, I'm leaning towards drapes (sheers and blackout lined ones) or panels like the ones mentioned by Bali. I actually have at least 18" on either side of the sliders, so there's more room to retract them than I thought.

Here's the problem though...if I use curtains on the sliders, am I locked into curtains on the other windows too? I have various window types in close proximity to eachother:

Sliders and corner windows:

Corner windows and alcove:

Windows that face the front of the house (slider wall) have a great view we want to preserve when WT are open, and windows on the side (alcove side) face the neighbors house so view isn't important. How do I handle the three different window types so that they look nice together?

(Contrary to how these pictures look, this is a very bright space with the sliders facing roughly south, and the alcove facing roughly east.)

I was in IKEA over the weekend...they do, indeed, have some cool panels.

Unfortunately we live 3+ hours from the nearest IKEA, and with a 2-yr old and a 3-month old, a road trip to IKEA isn't in the near future. I will check out their website though.

Any ideas on how to handle the different window types if I do panels on the sliders?

If you could get the same fabric that is uses on the drapes and then make roman shades for the smaller windows might be one idea.
Or any co ordinatong fabric.

I've got to say, I love my Hunter Douglas Vertiglides! It has such a tailored look to it, it insulates well, and it stacks up very tightly. They are pricey- for my standard slider it was about $750 and some of the quotes were up to $1000! If you look into the sliding panels, make sure you look carefully. I originally thought we'd get these because they looked sleek and sophisticated in the pictures, but once I saw them in person, and I think it was Hunter Douglas Brand, I was surprisesd at how cheap and nasty they looked. Kind of like regular fabric vertical blinds but much wider. Plus they won't stack as tightly as the Vertiglide.

If you end up going with drapes, I think I'd probably pick a type of fabric and pattern that is fairly basic and simple. You have an awful lot of windows in that room and it will need to look coordinated, so I think the simpler, the better. I'd stick with the same style and fabric for those 4 windows on the side. For that large door-sized window that's right next to the slider, I think it'd look best if you used the same fabric you use for the slider. Otherwise, it may look disjointed and won't flow very well.

I agree that coordinating or matching fabric (or even bamboo) roman shades on the windows would be a good idea. I also think that you could do wood blinds or something else neutral and that would look fine with fabric on the sliders.

I am not sure what I would do about the door--there is not much room for panels to stack on the sides. If you don't need to use it, I would consider matching panels.

I think you could either match the fabric (with different styles) on the different windows or make certain it looks completely different (like drape panels and bamboo blinds). Personally, I would do all of the same type (like drapes) on the wall with the sliders and then a different style on the other walls. I probably wouldn't mix styles on the same wall (but that might just be me).

I believe the Gliding Window Panels come in at least some of the same "fabrics" that the Designer Screen Shades come in. We have the Roman style Screen Shades in two bathrooms, and in our "office." They are available in different sheerness levels depending on the fabric, and give a nice, clean look. If you decided to use the Gliding Panels, you could use a coordinating flat/roll-up or Roman style screen shade on the windows in order to have a cohesive look throughout your space.

Having seen (and still loving!) your kitchen, I am sure whatever you choose will look lovely!

Cat_mom, you give me too much credit on my kitchen...that was definitely the result of a group effort with the kitchen forum. I actually am quite lacking in the decor department. I always have no idea what to do or where to start, but with a few suggestions I can tell what I like. I don't think I have bad taste (but who does?), but the trouble is I have no creativity or vision.

I am very relieved that you all are suggesting doing a WT type for the sliders and the door-sized window, and giving me permission to do something else with the little windows on the side of the room. The thing is my husband really wants to be able to make the room DARK, so I fear bamboo or wood blinds would leak too much light. The original plan was to do blackout cellular shades (which would have to be white to comply with husband) but after seeing the samples, they just seem so papery-plain.

What about hanging a slightly patterned sheer over cellulars to soften them and give a translucent option? I could do the same for all of the windows in the room, or I could do the little windows that way, and the big windows with the same sheer, but with an opaque lined curtain instead of a cellular.

One last question for now about the big window & slider...if we do cellular shades on them, the sliders would have vertiglide with the grooves vertical, and the big window right next to it would have regular horizonal grooves. Wouldn't that look funny?