Not sure I understand the question...do you need the doors to continue to operate? Or are you looking for a covering over the entire doorway?

That was my question too...Do you want to put something over the glass part of the french doors and still use the doors or would you be covering the whole area?

Sorry that I wasn't clear. We don't need to be opening those doors. I really don't want to remove them though. My DIL likes the look of the French Doors in her kitchen, so I don't want to remove or replace them.

I thought that maybe we could leave white curtains in place,to look nice from their side, then build a small, thin bump out where the doors are on our side, thereby, we could take it down in the future if need be. I'm thinking maybe using a cheaper plywood, rather than drywall, but have not priced anything out yet. Or maybe putting bookcases there, but still not sure how that would help with the soundproofing.

Just trying to keep some costs down right now, so I didn't want to do any "major construction" yet find something to work for sound-proofing in the meantime.

Now that our granddaughters are out of school, we can hear them more than we thought that we would. My DH is now working from home, so we need to come up with a solution until we can make an office for him in the basement.

TIA & thank so much for responding!

I would go to home depot and investigate sheets of styrofoam. You can wrap them in fabric and mount them to the wall which should help deaden sound yet be easy to remove.

I would buy2 inch thick sheets of insulating styrofoam...put them up with something like doubles tick carpet tape....perhaps spray paint them before you hang....and use as a bulletin board?
or you could decorate them with a tissue paper collage

Whatever you do put up will be your MIL's view...So you will have to take that into consideration.

I have slatted doors and it's like not even having doors on the rooms or bathroom...I put up a mirror on one bedroom door to help with the sound and that works great. On son's room I put up plywood and then added cork tiles so he could use it as message board etc., that worked out good too. His room was more to block out the sound of him when he plays his xbox live and is talking with other players. His room is closest to LR and it was like he was sitting in the LR playing his video games.

For a temporary fix, if you have bookcases large enough to cover the doorway, move them there and then fill them with books, not decorative objects. The bulk of the books will keep sound in your part of the house and should block some of the noise coming from their part. Books make good insulation.

1)Yes -- another vote for keeping fresh white curtains there -- and then place a couple of bookcases (check out "Billy" bookshelves from Ikea).

2)You could screw metal brackets between each bookcase to hold them together. Simply cover the backs of each bookshelf with cork -- or staple on foam and fabric.

3)IF you want -- you could even add small locking roller wheels to the bottom of each shelf -- and then they could be pulled away from the doors for cleaning.

Thank you for all your suggestions. I really appreciate the responses.

I didn't even think of using cork, but I like the idea of it doing double duty, so that's another good option to consider.

Thanks again ~~~ katclaws