Vertical Blinds from a Hunter Douglas Gallery Dealer

Sliders, patio doors and long runs of glass

Vertical blinds are built for the openings a horizontal blind struggles with, and the houses around our North Dartmouth showroom have plenty of them. The ranches off Faunce Corner Road and Slocum Road, built in the 1960s and 1970s, often have a sliding door out to a deck or patio and a long picture window beside it. Additions on Padanaram colonials and shingled capes frequently open onto the yard through a slider or a pair of French doors.

In South Dartmouth, water-facing rooms often have wide glass that takes hard afternoon glare off Apponagansett Bay, and a covering that draws sideways lets you shut out the low sun without a heavy blind to lift. Even the farmhouses toward Russells Mills, with their deep nineteenth-century sash, tend to have a newer back room with a slider.

Three ways to cover tall, wide glass

Hunter Douglas makes more than one style that hangs vertically and draws to the side. These are the three we show most often.

Custom vertical blinds

Individual vanes in vinyl or fabric on a headrail track. They rotate for light and stack to one side or both.

See custom verticals

Skyline gliding panels

Wide flat fabric panels that slide past each other on a track. Clean and modern, and they can even divide a room.

See Skyline

Vertical sheers

Luminette combines soft fabric vanes with a sheer face, for a look closer to drapery.

See Luminette

Why a slider needs a vertical covering

A sliding door is used constantly, which is where vertical blinds make sense. A horizontal blind on a slider has to be raised every time someone goes outside, and the bottom rail swings when the door moves. A vertical covering simply draws back to the side, out of the doorway, and stays there.

The vanes or panels also rotate or overlap to control light. Turn them partway and you cut glare while still seeing the deck and the yard. Turn them closed and the room is private. Draw them fully open and the door is clear, with the stack sitting beside the frame.

Vinyl, fabric or soft sheer?

The material sets the look and how the covering lives with you.

• Vinyl vanes are durable and easy to wipe, which suits a slider that sees children, pets and sandy feet coming in from the yard.
• Fabric vanes are softer and add texture, with a gentler look in living and dining rooms.
• Gliding panels suit very wide openings and modern rooms, and can hang from the ceiling to screen off part of a room.
• Vertical sheers filter light through fabric even when the vanes are open, so the room feels softer.

Stacking and drawing

You also choose where the covering gathers when it is open: to the left, to the right, split in the middle, or towards the center. On a slider, we usually stack the vanes on the side the door slides away from, so the opening is completely clear. On a long window, a split draw can look more balanced. Where a slider sits beside a fixed side window, as it does in many of the ranches, one long track across both can tie the wall together, with the stack parked in front of the glass that does not open.

How we measure and fit

1. Request a consultation online or with the call button.
2. We visit with samples, or you start at the North Dartmouth showroom.
3. We look at how each door opens and where the stack should sit.
4. We measure the opening ourselves and give you a free estimate.
5. Certified Hunter Douglas installers fit the track and vanes, check they rotate and draw smoothly, and show you how they work.

Other choices for a slider

Vertical blinds are not the only answer for a sliding door. A honeycomb shade can also be made to draw sideways, as on the slider above, and it adds insulating cells to the glass. If you would like to compare them, see our cellular shades page. Some vertical styles also work with PowerView motorization, which is handy on wide openings; ask us which options apply to the style you choose.

Vertical blinds from a Hunter Douglas Gallery dealer

Blinds & Designs is a Hunter Douglas Gallery dealer, with every job fitted through certified Hunter Douglas installation. We offer in-home consultations with sample vans, free estimates and interior design consultations, and we repair window coverings you already own.

Browse the vertical styles in the Hunter Douglas catalog, or see our full blinds page. Town pages for blinds include Dartmouth, Fall River, Fairhaven and Falmouth.

See the options at your door

Request a consultation and we will bring vane and panel samples to your slider, or visit the North Dartmouth showroom to compare them first.

Every Hunter Douglas line we carry is on our Hunter Douglas Gallery dealer page.