It looks like you have plenty of space all around the windows to have curtains sitting to the side when not drawn, so that you would not lose any light. At this recent project of ours in Highgate, the clients chose curtains throughout, which personally I feel soften the effect of large expanses of glass. Look forward to seeing what you have chosen!

Full house renovation in Highgate · More Info

Full house renovation in Highgate · More Info

Full house renovation in Highgate · More Info

Looking around, I am keen to have a double layer effect, so either:

1. Electric blinds (x 3 panels) and voile curtains on electric curtain rail

2. Voile's on electric curtain rail and and a 2nd layer of heavier curtains on another electric curtain rail side by side.

3. Just go with the easier option and have just blinds or voile's or curtains alone ( not my favourite option)

Both options would be ceiling mounted (I am unable to recess it into the ceiling as there is a large steel hidden in the roof in the middle). The voile's or curtains would sit by the edge of the windows as ODC suggested so I have full light from the window. I would need 160mm width space for each curtain to be in a wave ripple effect.

Which option would look the best?

(This is what the wave curtain would look like https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NvWMfZS5XQ)

You can also get large roller blinds, ceiling mounted, and battery operated, much cheaper than electric. What did you go for in the end?

cant wait to see them. We are going for battery operated as visually you don't see any difference and we're happy to use the remote control, or switch on the wall, but have no hassle with wires etc, plus the expense was about £1000 more for us, and I wanted the money on other things. Sounds lovely though and I expect they will be fab, can't wait to see pics

JC, I look forward to your photos too! We already have electrics sticking out the wall when we had originally planned the layout with the electricians...

So are you going for the wave design too?

HI Joolshicks, yes we have already had a winter and although we are not overlooked, I quite like the softening effect curtains and voiles have, as well protecting the furniture and floorboards in the summer.

Hi folks.....anything completed that you might want to share.....just contemplating all of the above so keen to see any finished article and feedback.

Hi Paul, I'm just ordering mine, so will have them in a few weeks time. I have to say for the same windows, same roller blinds I've had such a crazy range of quotes - everything from £750 to nearly 3k. The more expensive ones claimed that certain mechanisms, pulleys, etc, were all stronger, but when I looked into it and had an expert who works with blinds look at it for me, there really were only slight differences. As it's been such a large cost and choice to make this is why we've taken our time, and also my windows are so large that many places. blinds2go, etc don't do them without a join in the fabric, but I'm happy with my choice now after months of research so am buying this week. I'll update you when up.

Just to update you we have also gone for normal roller blinds, not battery operated, as the size of ours and weight put the cost up with the mechanisms, so that cost above is literally three roller blinds, nearly 3m wide each and 2.5 drop. I'll post pic when done.

Hi like Susan I cant wait to hear or see the finished works as I have the same problem....just had Hilary’s out for consultation but doors to wide.

Marlene

We have decided to do a double layer, using a warm grey colour for the curtain- more to dress the room and a white voile that opens and closes. It will be an electric curtain pole with a wave design so we can open and close it with a rocker switch on the wall or set it up with a smart app. We decided against a blind as we wanted to frame the window and we have lots of space either side of the windows to bunch up the curtains when not in use.

Have we bought it yet? No, we started a build project in the rest of the house and gutted everything so soft furnishings were put on hold....

Fingers crossed we may do it in the autumn....

My bifolds aare a lot smaller than yours but i have electric blinds which allow light through in the daytime and are cosy at night. they are honeycomb shaped which makes them warm in winter too. so they give me privacy when needed but let light through. best money spent on my renovation apart from my bathroom. There are a range of colours to choose from and you can operate them by remote control or app which is very easy to use. the company were very efficient installation was neat, clean and on time and the installer set it up and made sure I could add other compatible smart plugs as well to operate things like lamps.

hi Julie looks great what company did you use in the end

Hi Marlene,thanks. i used a company called Appeal Home Shading. The brand is Ultra Smart Pleated blinds

Hi there, sorry delay due to other building work, but we have decided and are ordering this week then they will be with us in 10 days. Will post when up

hi jc thank you for info

Julie your blinds look great

Happy to put up a pic of all three together with blinds fully down if anyone is Interested or wants more information. Love Houzz so helpful. Thanks everyone for all your tips and hints too.

The more, the merrier!

Perhaps you can take some photos from further away so we can see them in context with (some of) your room?

Blinds and doors look great.

How do you operate the blinds?

We had electric blinds for our bifolds (battery powered) about 18 months ago and are still super happy with them. The remote is attached onto the wall and that works well for us. We were warned against white in the kitchen due to stains but I decided to go with white voile regardless and I’m still really happy and have no stains. They give privacy but let light through. We only put the blinds down at night when we want a bit more privacy as we are overlooked and sometimes during the day when we are out. Our kitchen style is more modern however and I think the simpleness fits in. Photos attached.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BsX5Mm7ngmD/?igshid=1otvhl4pyevq8

I know this thread is really old but just wanted to say thank you to all the contributors! This has been so helpful in us choosing the coverings for the doors in our extension!!

So glad! Yes it was a tricky thing. More than happy to show anymore images by WhatsApp if easier or email. Mine are operated simply like normal blinds, and manually, on one side the pulley pulls down two blinds together, which are attached by a connection joining them, so 6 metres across with one strong pulley all come down together, and on the other side it pulls down one blind only. I have to say New blinds were fantastic and spot on even to the point where they did a video call with me to help me give them the correct measurements and miss the handles. I am not good at this, so needed hand holding and they were amazing, and a great price.

JC thank you again - it's actually your photos that we have saved on our wishlist so it really was a big help! New blinds sound absolutely brilliant so we're going to get in touch once the work starts and hopefully they can provide ours too. If you have any photos they would be most gratefully received, the mechanism you have to pull them all down sounds fab!

I presume you've not had any problems and they're still going strong!

At the risk of pushing my luck, do you have any idea of the cost of your lovely sliding doors, to have so much glass, compared to say bifold doors? We've decided we want large sliders to maximise the light, but I'm worried they will be loads more than bifolds which were in our original builder's quote, eek!!

Thank you again, as you say this forum is unbelievably helpful and I'm eternally grateful to you all!!

Hi Jill It might be easier on a call, but I can't find a way to send you my number privately? Can you look me up on Linked in and I can do a zoom call to show you, much easier?

Hi JC. Your blinds look amazing! We were just about to order large sliding doors (6.6m x 2.5) but everyone who quotes is telling us to go bifold! So annoying as the slides look so much better (imo). Just wondering how you are getting on with the sliders? Biggest concern that have been raised are the doors being too heavy and the heat loss. Hoping the blinds will help with that.

Ours are 9m wide by 2.5, and we have just three doors across that large width, my kids can operate them so not heavy, but we do have the schuco lift and slide system. No heat loss in the slightest, we only use the blinds for privacy, nothing to do with heat. Not sure why anyone would have told you that you would have lost heat? There are less joins than bifold? We went for sliding doors as less sight lines to obstruct view into garden plus no gathering of doors at one side. Maybe the old plastic type sliding doors you would have had those issues, but things have moved on massively with technology these days.

Thanks for the quick answer. The heat loss is mentioned when talking about bifold or sliding, I should have mentioned that. I'm guessing you have a large space with doors that big. Any problems with it being too hot or cold? Would love to go for the lift and slide but we need to have the track covered, which I'm led to believe isn't the case with l and s. Our youngest is visually impaired so we are thinking covered track is better, but we cold be overthinking it......again!!

Hi tombean79, just to say that we have 6.6x2.5 sliding doors. Interestingly, everyone we spoke to told us to go for sliding over bifold. We don’t have lift and slide - the doors are heavy, but fine for adults to open. My eldest child is 6 and I doubt that she would be able to open or close the door (we don’t live there yet).

Thanks Jemma. Good to know. Was going to ask you about heat/cold issues but I suppose you're in the same boat if you don't live there yet! Do you

you have a large space to heat?

Hello! Please have a look at our recent post on how to dress bifold doors. It is packed with useful ideas - https://www.polesandblinds.com/blogs/how-to-dress-bifold-doors-beautifully-useful-ideas/

Hi, I have 2 sets of bifold doors, one at 3.2m the other 5.5m. Somfy RF blinds inside which work really well using their remote controller.
This summer though has meant the sun coming through the glass has created so much solar gain…green house effect that our large family room is around 35C.
My problem is that my bifold door frame is just 35mm from the underside of the roof eaves so there is no room to put external roller blinds with cassettes to be able to keep the sun out. The only solution, other than changing the whole roof structure, is to have external quality ceiling hung curtain rails which are only 24mm in cross-section and hang pergola type UV resistant curtains which would need drawing each day and tying back at night. I know this will work but its seems a bit clunky and the curtains would need taking down from autumn to winter. Any other suggestions please? By the way this would cost around £600 to £800 self installed.