Panel Track Blinds, also referred to as sliding glass door curtains, is a beautiful treatment and is ideal for a patio door or a larger window. In this article I will share some knowledge that is available to all but many are not aware of or how to use this knowledge to your advantage. Just being aware of these few bits of information can make all the difference for your sliding glass door curtains.
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Must Be Involved In The Measuring Process
I first saw sliding glass door curtains about 10 years ago. They were popular in Europe before being introduced in the United States. People loved them because they were a good alternative to a vertical blind. The panels are available in many different styles and and materials. Panel track blinds can fit any decor and offer you the privacy and light control you desire, but you must be involved in the measuring process or you may not be happy with the final look of your sliding glass door curtains.
Problem Is In The Width
Panel track blinds are strips of material usually between 15 to 36 inches wide. The number of panels depend on how wide your final order is. The issue is not in the height but in the width, and here’s why. Let’s say you want panel track blinds on your patio door which measures 75 inches wide x 82 inches high.
In this case you might place your final order at 83 wide. That allows for 4″ of overlap on each side ( standard practice). For the height you might go 84″ thats about 3″ above your trim (again standard practice). The height is fine, it’s the width you might not like. A treatment 83″ wide will come with 3 panels.
Each being about 27 inches wide. When your sliding glass door curtains are closed there isn’t a problem, they look great. It’s when you open them or draw them to one side, a good portion of your window will still be covered. Because the panels are so wide you will loose, in this case, 25% of your view.
How To Use Price Breaks To Your Advantage
If you don’t mind this then your fine, but if you do mind you have a couple of options. First to do this you will need some wall space on each side of the window. Then determine your height, in this case is 84″. Next, go to the web site of where you want to buy your panel track blinds and plug in your width and height to get a price.
Take notice of the price. Then increase your width by 1″ and notice if the price changed or not. Keep increasing by 1″ until it changes. Usually the price break is every 10 to 12″. So how does this help you? By increasing your width to 94″ instead of 84″ you can get the panels off your window, increase your view and not increase your price.
How To Get A Narrower Panel Just By Asking
Another thing to consider is how many panels will your treatment have. Thats easy to find out, just go to the web site of where you want to buy and click on either “how to measure” or “details”. This will tell you how many panels based on your width. For 84″ wide you’ll get 3 panels about 27″ wide each (84 divided by 3).
In the example above you can increase your width while maintaining your price to get the panels off your window. But what if you want narrower panels. They won’t make them narrower because you asked, but if you know this, you can get narrower panels. In general the wider your sliding glass door curtains are the more panels there are and the narrower they become.
For example if you increase your width from 84″ to 85″ then it changes from 3 to 4 panels. That changes the width to approx. 21″ (85 divided by 4). So instead of three 27″ wide panels you have four 21″ wide panels. Thats great because now you don’t have to sacrifice your view to get an elegant window treatment. You can get the break down on panel quantity when you click on “how to measure” or “details”.
Play With The Numbers Until You Get What You Want
Now your better prepared, armed with the knowledge of how this system works.Play around with the numbers until you get the width and panel quantity your comfortable width. I hope your sliding glass door curtains turn out just as you envisioned they would.