When you think of updating your blinds, curtains, or windows might be the first thing that come to our minds, but shutters can be the perfect way to turn any room into a warm and inviting retreat. Be it solid or stained, swung open or completely closed, the hinged shutters bring a sense of style to your home’s décor. All year long, indoor window shutters can be energy-efficient. The louver structure keeps air in place to protect you from the cold and heat, no matter winter or spring.
While helping to reduce energy costs Custom shutters can increase the value of your home as well as add incredible curb appeal. They will leave an impression on prospective buyers with their ability to identify the subtleties of contemporary and traditional or coastal and colonial style.
The secret is the unique blend of the colors, tilt rod position, number of panels, and frame style.
Are you looking to unlock those secrets? This is all you need know about choosing the perfect design of shutters to fit your space.
First, A Brief History
First window shutters appeared out of Ancient Greece. They were first designed in marble, static shutters helped defend your home from the brisk, and sometimes stormy, Mediterranean climate.
When the use of shutters for windows spread across the continent in the Middle Ages, changes were implemented in their designs. The shift from marble to wood allowed the builders to create louvers that could be closed and opened to control light, ventilation, and privacy, while preventing rain.
In the 18th and 19th-century American South, the name “shutter” was first invented and louvered shutters accentuated the grandeur and elegance in Southern mansions.
How to Select the Right Window Shutters
Nowadays, shutters can be put in houses of different shapes and sizes on windows and doors, large or small. They’re available in numerous colors, natural wood stains and other materials, as well as hinges and frames. Here are a few suggestions to help you select the ideal affordable shutters for windows.
What To Consider When Selecting Color
When choosing a color for your paint or stain, consider your home’s exterior as well as your interior design. You’ll need a shade that matches the design aesthetic and palette that you choose for the exterior.
Selecting the Right Panel Configuration
Shutters look great when they align with the shape of your windows. This means that they’re vertical. shutters line up with the vertical frames for your window. Single panel shutters are most popular, as they can maximize light and view from outside. Specific windows might prefer an older-fashioned bi-fold appearance. To maximize light, look for fewer obstructions by using the largest possible panel size.
Hidden Tilt Bar Vs. Visible Tilt Bar
A center tilt rod that is visible is the most classic style featured on classic shutters. They are perfect for accenting cottage or colonial-style homes. A hidden tilt rod adds an updated look to a room and provides the most light, and visibility for shutters that have many panels.
Frames Can Be The Final Touch
A visual connection between the wall and shutter is a crucial feature that should not be left unnoticed. No matter how thin or thick and contrasting in color, or matching, shutter molding is able to dress up the opening. Select from T-frames, L-shaped casing frames, other.
What shutters are available?
Wood Shutters
There’s something so warm and cozy real shutters made of wood add to an space. They’re a lot lighter than faux wood, poly, and even hybrid shutters. However, wood may warp in humid environments, while faux wood proves to be far superior in humid conditions.
Faux Wood Shutters
Made from polyresin, and offering the appearance of traditional wood, faux wood shutters look identical to the real thing and provide moisture resistance when humidity is high, similar to bathrooms. The faux wood shutters are scratch-proof and extremely durable.
Poly Shutters
Offering all the durability and feel of wood shutters These shutters made of poly are made with recycled, non-toxic, and fire-retardant material. With a sleek, patented finish, these shutters are easy to clean and maintain. No painting, no repairing, no replacing necessary.
Hybrid Shutters
Hybrid shutters blend the timeless style of wood frames with the durability of solid poly panels. The result is a custom window treatment that does much more than simply look great. These panels can insulate windows and doors by 65 more effectively than standard shutters to help keep energy bills lower and make spaces more comfortable. The glass-like, laser-baked finish on the panels resists harmful UV Rays. No yellowing, cracking, breaking, chipping or warping.
Made-To-Measure Shutters
Regardless of what style elements and materials you choose You can be sure that your best option is our custom-designed, easy-to install window shutters to match your windows’ specific dimensions.
How to Measure for Inside Mount Window Shutters:
Make sure that your window’s depth is sufficient to hang shutters on the inside of the frame. Also, determine the depth of the glass to the outside edge of your window’s casing. If the depth of your window casing is less than 2 3/4 inches you’ll need to choose an external mount.
Then, take a measurement of the width from left to right in three spots: the top, middle, and bottom. Also, measure the height at the top left, center, and top right down to the window sill.
How To Measure For Exterior Mount Window Shutters:
Follow the same steps to continue measuring the inside window mount measurements.
For standard L-frame shutters include 4 inches in the measurements of the width, and include 2 inches in the height if you have a window sill. In addition, add four inches, if you don’t have an existing sill.
For designer-frame shutters you should add 5 inches to the width measurement. Then add two inches for height if you have a window sill. You can add 5 inches the height of the shutter if you don’t have an existing sill.
How to hang Interior Shutters
The light streaming through windows could be an annoying distraction. And then there are the neighbors who have more evening hours to peer at your brightly lit living room. You can install shades to ward off unwanted eyes However, swinging shutters from wood are sure to be more intriguing.
Interior shutters were the first “window treatments” commonly used to decorate Southern and urban houses, and are still a fantastic method to create architectural and historical detail. They also aid in keeping out winter’s chilly winds or summer’s intense heat. And they’re easy to install on any window because they attach to a thin frame that either sits inside the opening in the window or on the outside from the frame. So long as the frame is placed correctly the shutters can swing open and shut out any distractions during the day by a satisfying click.
Measure the Window Opening
Measure horizontally across the jambs of your window at three locations: top, middle, and bottom. Measure in three places vertically as well.
Take the smallest of both sets of measurements and forward those measurements over to the shutter firm for customized shutters.
TIP: Use a folding rule with a sliding extension, instead of a tape measurement for the most accurate inside measurements.
Prepare the shutters
Place each pair of shutters on the edge , with hinge mortises facing up and the louver-control bars oriented towards one another. (This will ensure that all the bars are facing the room when the shutter is hung and allows one shutter in each is set to open right, and another opens left.)
Place a hinge into the mortise. Attach your driver or drill with an Vix bit. Position the bit in a screw hole for the hinge. Inject a pilot hole into the shutter. Repeat this process for all hinge holes.
It is important to note that shutter hinges are factory-configured to open to the right and you’ll probably need to take pins out of half before reinstalling them upside down so that every right-side hinge has the left-side counterpart.
With a Phillips-head bit in the driver/drill, screw all hinges to the shutters.
Attach the hanging clips
A second person should hold the shutter open against the wall with its hinges opened so that they sit within the jamb. Adjust the entire unit to ensure that its hinges protrude from the jamb only enough that the shutter can open up when it’s in a straight line with the wall. Draw a line on your jamb in the back of each hinge.
Attach the hanging strip to the lines. With a 1/8-inch drill bit fitted into your drill/driver, bore the pilot hole (one each at top and bottom) throughout the strip, and then into the jamb.
With a square-head bit with your drill/driver, attach the hanging strip into the jamb. Repeat on the opposite side.
Tips The trick is to drive the screws into the hanging strips at an angle so as to prevent them from loosening over time.
Place the shutters in the Opening
With the assistance of your friend, place both shutters within the window’s opening. Slip the shims into the both the top and bottom to keep them in place. Adjust the shutters to ensure an uniform spacing between the window jamb and between the shutters.
The casing is marked at the top of each hinge knuckle. Set shutters aside.
Mark Hinge Positions on Casing
Using a combination square, make a mark on the casing to create a straight line in the jamb and then to the hanging strip. This mark will show you where to place the window’s hinges.
TIP: When marking hinges, you should make use of the top of the knuckle instead of the pin to guide you. This will be the top of the hinge plate.
Put the shutters up on the Strips
Prior to hanging shutters, attach magnetic catch plates to their bottom (or the top) within the corner.
Close a shutter, and then position it so that the L-shaped hinges sit snugly in the corner created by the hanging strip and window jamb. Align the upper edge of every hinge plate with the line of each.
Mark the screw holes and put the shutter aside. Use a 1/8-inch drill bit to make pilot holes at the locations you have marked.
Secure the hinges by loosely screwing them to the strip of hanging using Phillips-head screwdriver. Close the shutter and make sure it’s even all around. Adjust it as necessary before tightening the screws.
Tips: Use a hand screwdriver instead of a drill or driver in tight spots. It allows you to have more control and makes damage less likely to happen.
Make sure you install the Magnet for Catch.
Attach a catch magnet to the metal plate of the shutter. Close the shutter and make sure it’s level with the outside and back of the window.
With the magnetized catch positioned on the window, mark the screw holes.
Remove the catch from the shutter and place it on top of the marks made at the bottom of the sill. Attach the catch to sill using a Phillips-head screwdriver. Repeat the procedure for the second catch.
Tip: A shutter (or door) is aligned correctly when the two halves of each hinge rest fully and squarely against each and the other when closed.
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