Shutters as Window Furniture
What can give you quality, selection, low maintenance, and a lasting investment for your home? Shutters, of course. With this permanent addition to your home, you can increase the value – enjoy them now and enjoy them later with the increased value of your home when you decide to sell.
Shutters provide great light and still allow you to control privacy. Shutters look beautiful, but require little maintenance – no dry cleaning! Shutters can fit those hard to fit windows such as arches, French doors, and hexagon shapes, but look wonderful on those classic rectangular windows as well.
Years ago shutters were only available in a 1 ¼” vane and that fit the housing style just fine. But now we have larger windows, higher ceilings, and the desire to see out with less obstruction. So the manufacturers have created different size vanes called plantation shutters – 1 7/8”, 2 ½”, 3 ½” and 4 ½” vanes. You may balance the amount of light you want with the scale of your window. The hidden tilt bar is a wonderful additional feature. You can open or close your shutter just by moving any one vane and you don’t have that tilt bar running through your sight line.
The old adage that you get what you pay for is very true with shutters. Quarter-sawn wood is extremely stable and will resist cupping, twisting and warping, but it will cost a little more. Mortise-and-tenon joinery is very sturdy and important to the long life of a shutter. Multiple sequences of sanding and staining or painting are the only way to achieve a really smooth and hard finish. A typical palette of 50 paint and stain choices are available and if that still doesn’t match your needs, custom colors are also available.
Shutters used to be “off limits” in high humidity places, but now with the advent of composite construction ( a solid engineered wood cord that is enclosed in a polypropylene coating) these shutters are now resistant to yellowing, denting, chipping, cracking, and can stand up to heat and humidity. Replacing your current window treatment with a “faux” wood shutter in your bathroom or your hot tub area is now possible.
New frame styles add to the finished look of a shutter. Sometimes there is not enough depth required for the plantation shutters, so shutters can come with decorative frames that create depth for the shutter, and looks like your window and shutter are a perfect fit.
Correct measurements and experienced installation are extremely important for shutter satisfaction and a lifetime of enjoyment.
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