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Q.
I have a new vinyl French style patio door in the kitchen area and need some
type of window covering. Can I attach mini blinds or roman shades directly to
the door above the glass? If so what kind of fasteners do I need? I really
don't like vertical shades/blinds as they would not go with the look I want.
A.
I have never tried
this, but my best guess would be yes. Depending on the manufacturer, a vinyl
door might be vinyl over a wood core, or hollow vinyl extrusions that are cut
and bounded together at the corners. If the doors have a wood core, there will
be no problem. The screws will go through the vinyl and into the wood.
If these doors are hollow, you will need to be very careful when putting in the
screws. Don’t over tighten them, or they will rip out the plastic and you will
have to try again with larger screws. You might want to add some sort of
adhesive between the bracket that holds the blinds and the door. Sorry, I don’t
have a suggestion for a specific adhesive, but browse through the selection at
your hardware store and see what claims to bond to both vinyl and metal.
When you put blinds or shades on a door, you need to attach them at the bottom
as well as the top. If you don’t, every time the door is opened, the blinds go
flying and crashing around. This will be tough on the blinds as well as the
door and the jamb. It should be no problem getting the appropriate hardware
from the blind manufacturer.
One last thing to keep in mind, this is going to be permanent. Once you drill
through the vinyl, there is no good way to fill or patch the hole and make it
look good. I might be a bit nervous about attaching blinds to a hollow vinyl
door that gets a lot of traffic and/or will have a lot of opening and closing
or raising and lowering of the blinds. Over time, this may tend to loosen the
screws holding the hardware, and lead to ripping them out.
If the doors are from a large manufacturer, you may be able to find a more
definite answer on their website.
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