Your shutters, your way. No cut downs, no cut-in-halfs. Everything made to measure, not ‘made-to-fit’. So read on to decide which design of shutters works best for you.
Our plantation shutters are completely bespoke and made from scratch to your exact specification. Before choosing your colours and slats, you need to decide between café style, tier on tier or full height shutters.
Half height shutters are also called cafe style shutters. This term is used to describe shutters which cover just the lower section of the window, but leaves the top section open. This design is often used where customers are trying to gain privacy (say, for example, when the window is overlooked or maybe close to the street). In this situation, cafe style shutters are used where the shutter panels themselves are most often left closed and the louvers are tilted at an angle for privacy.
Another reason customers choose cafe style shutters is because they wish to retain maximum light entering the room through the upper portion of the window. This can be a factor to consider if the window faces north or has restricted light due to a building or trees outside the home, restricting light into the room.
Half height shutters work well in the above situations but think about the practical considerations before you opt for this design. If you are thinking of these for a bedroom, have you also got drapes? No drapes means you could be blinded by the early morning sun if you’re relying just on those shutters? If the shutters are for the den, it could feel a little bleak in mid winter if you don’t have the ability to close off the outside.
In which case, you may be better considering.....
Double hung shutters are often called tier on tier shutters in Europe. This design sees shutters covering the entire surface area of your window, but have significant different over full height shutters. Double hung shutters see the shutter panels divide horizontally, thus giving you the option of leaving the lower portion of shutter panels in position while swinging open the upper ‘tier’ of panels. This therefore gives you the same sort of privacy offered by half height shutters, gives the same amount of light through the upper section of the window, but allows you to close the top panels if you want to make the room dark or want to make that family room feel more snug!
Generally double hung shutters are the most effective design if you are sure you are going to open back the top panels. If you do not open back the top panels, it’s not a great option. Double hung panels, as they are opened often, are best made with narrow panels, which ‘bi-fold’ onto each other – that way, they take up less space around the window. If you opt for this design but end up leaving the shutter panels closed over most of the time, it’s a bad design as you end up with lots of vertical solid sections of wood.
Send over a photo to us of your window if you’re unsure if double hung / tier on tier shutters work well for you.
Full height shutters are the most popular design of plantation shutters chosen by customers of The Shutter Store. While each home is different and everyones’ reasons for buying shutters unique, it is generally true that most customers buying plantation shutters end up leaving the shutters panels closed over and adjust the louvers for control of light into the room.
This is a point that we cannot stress enough to our customers. Think about it......
Generally, going for shutters with wider panels will allow maximum light into the room (unless, of course, you want to deflect the light – in which case just angle the louvers!). Wider panels means you have fewer vertical wood divides, which in turn allows more light into the room and visually, creates a much ‘less busy’ look.
Full height wood shutters can still be opened up in the same way as regular shutters. All panels are hinged to open easily, Just open the panel, clean or open the window and swing the panel closed again. Easy.
You can choose your full height shutters to be made with horizontal mid rail, full run of slats or split tilt rod. As we make your shutters from scratch, you can choose which design options work best for your home and design preferences.
Ordering shutters with The Shutter Store is simple. Our easy to use online shutter store helps you every step of the way and we even have a designer shutters store. However, if you need any help just click to contact us – our genuine shutter experts are here to help!
