You will notice a theme in this blog lately. Shutters. For whatever reason, there is a huge resurgence of the popularity of shutters in the Reno and Lake Tahoe regions lately. For most windows, the layout is fairly simple, but with patio doors or sliding doors, the design issues are a bit more complicated. In this video blog, I show the simplest and most cost effective solution. 

The options available for shutters over a sliding door are:

• Hinged Panels- as shown. A T-Post at the center allows you to hinge the door from the center, which allows the easiest access to the door.
• Hinged Panels in a Bi-Fold Configuration- Instead of having one large panel, you can have 2 panels. In this case, the panel size was about 38″, which is wider than SOME manufacturers can do, so you would be forced to use multiple panels.
• Bi-pass Panels- Done with a track system at the top, like sliding panel closet doors, these panels slide past one another to stack at the side. There are two basic formats.

1. Closed Bi-pass Track- With this configuration, you MUST close the louvers when you slide the panels past one another as the gap between panels is small, which offers a smaller projection into the room.
2. Open Bi-pass Track- With this configuration, you are able to leave your louvers open when sliding past each other. This prevents damage when an unaware person moves the panel, and it means that you can leave both panels opened when stacked to the side, thereby allowing more light into the space.
   
   

   Hunter Douglas Heritance Bi Pass Shutters

• Bi-Fold Panels- If you would rather fold your panels off the window, then a bi-fold system can be used. It also uses a track system at the top, and some companies also use a bottom track, as the panels tend to get a little askew when they are folded off. You must be aware of the projection into the room.
  
  

  Bi Fold Shutters

These are just some of the options when doing shutters. Every circumstance is different, which is why it is critical to work with a creative and experienced window fashions designer when making choices for your sliding doors. Even though I have dealt with shutters for this blog posting, there are many other viable options for this design conundrum and they should also be visited when making your choice.