My ugly deck door and curtains....

[hausfrau]

Are you wanting the valance to hang high and cover up the wall above the doors?

My first inclination is to just do the panels and then see about the valance. Maybe just the panels on either side would be enough.

ETA: I love the blue on your walls!

[auntie]

I have a set of french doors to my deck- so similar situation.

I have panels hung off a heavy rood high over the door and stacked to the sides. The overlap just past the hinges. JMHO- nothing says JCPenney curtains like an insret valance.

Does your big gorgeous cat like his new bird blanket?

[hausfrau]

Feb 2, 2013 16:43:15 GMT -5 FormerlyRR said:

I see why the former owner had that up there. How about a padded cornice covered with that fabric you found? I'm not sure curtains would work for that door, with the pillars next to it I feel like it would be too cramped. 
You could shape the edges to drop a bit over the top of the sidelights. Like this.Cornice

I really like the cornice idea! It would cover up that weird spot and give you a bit of color over the doors.

[auntie]

What if you were to buy a piece of crown for that space and paint the panel to match the room.

Or of you bought a really heavy wood rod and hung it to obsure the lack of molding? And painted the panel to match the wall.

You could do a padded cornice and panels. I haven't had anyone ask for such a thing in a few years so I assumed that trend left the building. LOL, I ditched my last padded cornice 6 years ago.

[pitterwoo]

your door situation stumps me so much. when you originally posted the pics I thought it was supposed to have a transom window too. I think you need something up there. I don't really like the gathered valance the way they had it. I think a pelmet box (is that the same as a cornice??) could look nice with or without curtain panels. I would probably hang the panels to cover the side molding. I like the fabric you found. I'm looking around my house to see if there's somewhere I could use them- we're heading to Lowes later today.

[hausfrau]

I was looking around on Houzz, and what about a large roman shade that hangs up high to fill up that space? You could add panels on the side, tied back too if it looked kind of naked on the sides? The cornice is kind of dated, although maybe it would look okay depending on the shape.

Here are some picture links I saw of some different window treatments:

www.houzz.com/photos/1358003/Mill-Valley-Classic-Cottage-traditional-kids-san-francisco

www.houzz.com/photos/235528/1512-Dolphin-Terrace-traditional-bedroom-los-angeles

[downtoearth]

Feb 4, 2013 11:30:25 GMT -5 hausfrau said:

I was looking around on Houzz, and what about a large roman shade that hangs up high to fill up that space? You could add panels on the side, tied back too if it looked kind of naked on the sides? The cornice is kind of dated, although maybe it would look okay depending on the shape.

Here are some picture links I saw of some different window treatments:

www.houzz.com/photos/1358003/Mill-Valley-Classic-Cottage-traditional-kids-san-francisco

www.houzz.com/photos/235528/1512-Dolphin-Terrace-traditional-bedroom-los-angeles

I like the roman shade idea, but it's way more expensive or time consumming to DIY than curtains. 

If you do the curtains, I too would skip the valance, even with the white part above the door.

[auntie]

Ok. So I'm seeing this a little more clearly.

The issues I see-
masking the weird painted plywood above the door
camoflaging the non-symetrical random 2 x 4"
distracting away from the lack of crown molding

Here's a thought

Hang a set of the panels off a substantial rod with interesting finials. Attach the rod high and let the panels drop to cover the outside trim of the side-lights.

Cut a panel of foam board to the dimensions of the plywood and cover. I'd use a canvas or muslin painted to match the wall color, but ypu could do a contrasting color or even a piece of the panel fabric.

Making a roman shade large enough to cover that door set would be challenging in terms of material handling and cost. I really can't wrap my mind around fabric roman shades and panels- to be functional the shade would have to be over the panels which makes them basically a valence. The picture with the grass blinds looked nice. I have something similar in one of my bay windows.

[kitty]

I like the second houzz idea a lot!

[auntie]

For a rod, I would probably do a wood. For one thing, you have a lot of traditional wood in the room like the Boston rocker. And for another, wood tends to come in much thicker diameters than metal. Nickle is the current darling of decor, but it looks as if the door has yellow brass accents. If you hate woodtone, you could buy a wood rod painted a metallic or DIY a new finish.

I'd probably try to put a Crown molding up. Chances are you can fins or custom order something very similar. The columns break it up, so it needn't be perfect. I like the idea of burlap, the texture would be interesting.
One way to get around the lenght issue could be to hang tem off rings which could buy you an extra 4-6". Adding panels for length always looks klugey to me- a quirk of mine- so I'd just get longer panels or sew something simple.