Sliding door cover recs?

[Carrie12345]

My awesome blinds were finally installed through the house!  But I still have an 8’ tall sliding glass door with no covering, and no idea what look I want to go for.

 It’s not a general privacy issue, since it’s only woods behind us, but the concept of prowlers has disturbed me since I was 8 and my parents installed full glass doors. I like being able to close everything up from view at night.

It will eventually be a heavy traffic door, so probably needs something like a fully retractable curtain vs. tabbed or grommet panels?

My blinds are all white, so I’m concerned about picking something that stands out too much. And no, white fabric is not a reasonable option!

 

[lmrich]

We have drapes on our sliding doors that match the wall color (as best as possible) so it all blends.

[Katy]

They make sliding vertical shades that we used on the walkout basement on our waterfront house. Ours weren’t these exactly but they were similar sliding fabric panels.  
 

https://www.blinds.com/p/bali-solar-sliding-panels/507665

[KungFuPanda]

I have a traverse rod and a neutral beigy curtain plus sheers. Sometimes I close everything and sometimes just the sheers. My slider is ridiculously large so when I moved in 20+ years ago I just covered it. I’d like to make the rod higher and wider so the curtain doesn’t over any of the slider when open. I think it’ll look nicer, but initially it didn’t occur to me to make a giant door look even larger. That beige color has held up really well forever but I think my next move will be a lighter version in that same warm, natural color family. 

[Tree Frog]

You could do as one of the houses we rented did: tape fabric to a rod. We never noticed in the 3 years we lived there that the "curtain" wasn't hung properly until ds drew on it with a sharpie and I was panicked trying to find an inexpensive replacement. 

[Tap]

I have a double rod on my slider. A set of dark grey curtains on metal grommets that slide super easy. When I open the house up in the morning, I just give them a shove and they slide to the other end with almost zero effort. Behind that is a set of soft white sheers. They are not on grommets, but the pocket the rod goes through is large enough that they slide easily. The fabric is definitely a poly bled, so they slip easily.  These take maybe 1 extra second to open.

I like having sheers because I live in a neighborhood and I like to have them cover the window when it is dark outside in the winter and the kitchen lights are on. It makes it so easy to see into someone's house and sometimes it gives me the creeps. I also use them when my dog is barking at animals in the yard. LOL The white sheers don't feel quite as closed in as the heavier curtains. I only close the curtains when I lock the house up for the night.

[cjzimmer1]

I don't know about your kids but mine always want to sneak through without fully opening which means it will get touched a lot and thus invariably dirty.  I went with the vinyl vertical blinds because they are easy to sneak through when someone wants to peek out or doesn't want to open them for some reason, they can easily be fully opened and they are WASHABLE since they always get dirty.  You can get them in solid colors or prints so I would think you should be able to find something complementary.