I assume you want to raise them during the day? (If you have shades)

I work from home, and my office off the living room has a French door. I don't need light and sound blocking, but do need privacy. I bought a silk remnant, and just made pockets on the top and bottom of the panel, and use rods that are very small in circumference and which have tiny brackets that tack to the door.

For light blocking, you could line them, or choose a fabric that doesn't let light through. For a possible bit of sound dampening, you might use a quilt batting between the face fabric and lining. Just stop the batting short of the pockets you put the rods through, so it won't hinder getting them on rods. You probably wouldn't want to shirr yours like mine are, if you want to add sound dampening, although it could be done. You could gather the face fabric and attach it to straight back panels with the batting sewn to them.

Put the light blocking curtains on the Living room side, portiere-style.

2pups...probably not necessary to open as when they don't need privacy they can just open the door for light.

My3dogs, I like your solution and your curtains look extremely classy!

palimpsest - I hadn't considered putting the curtains on the living room side! I think this would look and feel fabulous especially with a very rich curtain fabric. Would it be odd to have these be the only curtains in the room? Between kitchen and living there are three outside doors, another interior French door and three windows.

I would have a lot of convincing to do with my husband who for some reason despises curtains although he's conceded to a very attention-getting set in our own formal living.

Some more of the area:

i like this look

We have a den with a sleeper sofa located just off the kitchen at our vacation house. We put blinds up at the French doors and have not had a single complaint about privacy.

I agree with Pal. However, my 3dogs example looks fantastic too!

Robo I like that look also. Would you put the rod on the inside of room or outside? I can't help but think that doing as My3D did would be easiest.

I would go with a treatment on the door - either my3dogs' or Annie's suggestions.

The treatment in the LR looks heavy to me in contrast to the decor and seems like it might be cumbersome to use. Seeing the glass, even if there's a curtain or shade shielding the view, seems to suit the sparkly feel of a lake home, especially in the summer months.

Husband ixnayed the portiere idea completely. That man and curtains...I think a curtain must have assaulted him in a past life. I like the roller shade idea...but I like the idea of a traditional French door curtain solution like My3dogs posted as well!

Especially since this is a vacation cottage....I wouldn't use heavy draperies. In our previous home we had wide slat plantation shutters on our French doors. They look fabulous, let in light when open and block it when closed, and other than a quick dusting with a swiffer cloth....virtually maintenance-free.

In my old house, we had 2.5" faux wood blinds attached directly to the door. This is the best photo I have access to right now. But given that you've already got this type of blind going on, I think it's an optimal solution. Note, light control is the only reason we had this blind. The setting sun shone directly through this door onto our TV. :P

amberm - did you have a problem with the blinds swaying into the door? I could totally see ordering these when I order the blinds for the rest of the room!

PS I LOVE your backsplash!!!

When you opened the door, the blinds would move, but it never bothered me. Before we moved in, the previous owners had hung mini-blinds, and there were hooks near the bottom to hold it in place. When we first moved in, I replaced the mini blinds with a roman shade, made by me. And I never used the hooks. When we renovated the kitchen 10 years later, we ended up replacing the door, and I didn't put hooks on the new door. This is when we put the faux wood blinds on.

I don't think they swayed all that much because there was support behind them as it was moving. And we never swung the door hard enough to get a good force on the blind. And the trim around the glass sat proud a 1/4" or so, and the blind was slightly wider than the window, so the blinds never touched the glass.

Thanks for the compliment on the BS. I had planned to just do white as we were already talking about moving. DH wanted orange. I came up with this "random" pattern to give him his orange without being solid orange. SIL is the only person who ever commented negatively on it, but it was enough to make me nervous when we put it on the market. But both realtors we interviewed also loved it. And the house sold in 2 days. So I guess it wasn't too crazy.

I like my3dogs solution. Unless you're going for a unified look for all the windows, it seems the easiest. I'm a big fan of roman shades and you could probably get a lot of light control from those for all the windows. But since you plan to frost the glass on the french doors that will offer some privacy and the gathered curtain should offer the rest. Unless you have some noisy guests in the adjoining room, it seems like that would be all you will need.

Ok I have a last question, about window coverings in general:

This room, which is about 15x10, has three small windows and the two French doors.

As a bedroom I think it is immune to my husband's irrational curtain hatred.

What would you do for window treatments if it were up to you? Five roman shades? A few sets of curtains and some shades? The two windows facing the lake are so small, I was almost considering running one rod overtop both and just having a panel to each side. But then the one window at the back is equally small, but it faces North while the front windows face due East and tend to let in blinding sunrises.

Doors

The three windows

View of the two lake-facing windows (previous owner's stuff).

I would start with the blinds, and then maybe add curtains if you feel it's still missing something.

I like the softness and sound deadening that fabrics bring, esp to a bedroom. I know you mentioned the need for room darkening, so I'd do drapes that draw, traverse probably, so the windows can be covered completely. On the two windows, I'd do a single rod and have the drapes draw to the far side of each window...and meet in the middle covering both windows when shut.

Hey Kimber, thanks for chiming in on a 2+ year old thread.