Living room curtains: how to choose, and what suits a big sliding glass door

The living room usually has the biggest glass in the house, and in many homes that glass is a full-wall sliding door people walk through every day. So the window covering has several jobs at once: managing light, giving privacy, staying out of the way, and being the largest thing you see when you walk in. This guide takes those decisions in the order they should be made. Where a topic already has its own guide we point you to it instead of repeating it. If you're choosing for a bedroom that needs darkness, for example, read bedroom curtains and darkness instead.

How do you choose living room curtains, and where do you start?

Don't start with colour or pattern. Start with how the room is used. Answer these five questions first and the options narrow themselves down a long way.

• How bright should the room be by day? Wide open to the daylight, or just less glare without having to switch the lights on.
• When do you need privacy? By day, from the street or the neighbours, or only at night with the lights on. Those two call for different fabrics.
• Do you still want the view? If there's a garden or an outlook you like to see all day, a single opaque layer hides all of it every time it closes.
• Where is the TV relative to the glass? Glass opposite the screen reflects in it. Glass behind the screen leaves your eyes fighting the brightness around it.
• Is it a window, or a door you walk through? A door used all day changes the answer on which type to fit.

A view out without people seeing in: which fabric?

By day, the fabric that does this is the sunscreen fabric on a motorized roller blind, a tight open weave that takes the glare down while you still see out, or a sheer on a curtain, which softens the light. Either keeps the room usable without throwing the curtains wide open. The difference between sunscreen and blackout fabric is covered in detail in blackout vs sunscreen fabric. If the real problem is afternoon sun and heat, read heat-blocking blinds for rooms with afternoon sun.

Fabric only solves part of TV glare. A see-through fabric still lets a fair amount of light in. If a large pane sits directly opposite or directly behind the screen and you watch a lot in the daytime, give that opening a more opaque layer to close only while watching. The whole room doesn't have to be opaque. If the layout isn't fixed yet, putting the screen at a right angle to the glass does more than any change of fabric.

Sliding glass doors: curtain, roller blind or vertical blind?

If the room has both a sliding door and ordinary windows, it doesn't all have to be one type. Plenty of homes put curtains on the big door and roller blinds on the smaller windows, and keep the tones matched. Vertical blinds and roller blinds are compared point by point in vertical blind vs roller blind. If you've settled on curtains and are stuck on the heading, read pleated vs wave curtains. The sizes we make in each type are in the table below.

What colour for living room curtains? Light versus dark

Light versus dark isn't only about looks. Light fabric reflects daylight and keeps the room feeling bright even when closed. Dark fabric handles glare better, and on a see-through fabric a dark colour gives a clearer view out, though the fabric itself takes up more heat. So a small or dim living room usually leans light, and a very bright room where the view matters leans darker.

• Judge it against the big things in the room: walls, floor and sofa. A curtain close to the wall colour blends in and makes the room feel wider. One that contrasts becomes the feature. Decide which you want first.
• Look at the real fabric at the actual window. The same colour looks very different with daylight coming through it and under lamps at night, and a phone screen never matches the cloth. We bring the fabric samples to the room at the measure anyway.
• For two layers, choose them as a pair. The sheer inside and the opaque curtain outside are seen together most of the day. Picked separately, they often clash.
• Patterned or plain. Living room curtains cover a large area. A pattern that looks good on a small swatch can be too much across a whole wall, so ask for the largest sample available.

Should living room curtains reach the floor, and how much stacking space do they need?

On a glass door or full-height glass, a floor-length curtain is the usual choice, since the opening itself runs to the floor. On a window with a sill above the floor, it can stop below the sill or run to the floor. Floor-length makes the wall look taller, but check whether a sofa, a cabinet or a floor-standing air conditioner sits under the window. The hem should clear the floor slightly or just touch it. That is decided at the measure, and it's why the measure has to come after the flooring is finished. What people forget more often is stacking space. An open curtain doesn't disappear. It gathers at the end of the track. If the track is exactly as long as the glass, the stack always covers part of it. As a rule the track should run past the glass so the fabric stacks on the wall instead. On a sliding door, work out which panel you actually walk through and send the stack to the other side. If there is no wall left beside the door at all, a taped wave heading stacks the flattest when open, or switch to a roller blind, which stores its fabric at the top. Measuring is covered in how to measure your own windows.

Is it worth motorizing living room curtains?

Not every opening needs it. The ones worth motorizing are those where opening by hand is enough of a chore that nobody ends up doing it: a run so wide the fabric is heavy and you walk its whole length, tall glass you can't reach, and openings with a sofa or cabinet in front. For curtains, the route is a motorized curtain track, priced per set by the length band of the track. That price is the track with its motor. Fabric is separate, and you can keep curtains you already like. Details are in what a motorized curtain track costs. On a motorized roller blind, the motor is charged separately per unit, as in the table below. Both need a power socket near the headrail. If there isn't one, an electrician has to add it first, because we don't do electrical wiring.

The figures in the table are starting rates before VAT. The real price is confirmed after the on-site measure, which costs 500-1,000 THB in Bangkok and the metro area and is credited back in full when you order. We then send a written quote within a day, and the price holds for 7 days. For a rough idea first, message us on LINE with photos of the room, the width and height of each opening, and which one is a door you walk through.