Colonial style homes are popular particularly in the southern and eastern United States. They usually feature symmetrical lines and multi-paned smaller windows throughout the house with detailed molding surrounding the windows on the interior.
Many colonial style homes feature shutters on the exterior, as well as on the interior. With The Shutter Store you can design your custom interior shutters to fit the decor style of your colonial home with ease.
Choose Your Shutter Style
Full height, cafe style, and tier on tier style shutters are all possible to match with colonial style decor. Because generally, American colonial homes feature multiple smaller windows, the size may result in a tier-on-tier style looking too cluttered within the window, or a cafe style being rather short.
Depending on the height of your windows, our shutter experts can help you choose the best style, but generally speaking full height shutters are a great option for colonial windows.
Choose Your Number of Panels
Your shutters can be designed to have the panels anywhere from about 10” wide up to about 30” wide depending on the material you choose. For example, a window that is 60” wide, could have as many as 6 or as few as 2 shutter panels. Colonial style lends itself well to the smaller panels (meaning more panels per window opening).
Choose Your Slat Size
Also, as a rule of thumb, colonial style traditionally features smaller slats, such as 2 1/2” or 3” so as not to overpower the size of the windows. Of course, you can always add a modern touch based on personal preference, as our slats come in multiple sizes: 2 1/2”, 3” (select ranges), 3 1/2” and 4 1/2”.
Choose Your Tilt Rod
A central tilt rod, the thin bar that runs down the middle of each shutter panel, is the traditional style that will match with the traditional architecture style of a colonial home. A hidden tilt rod is optional for a more modern look, that is easier to clean and keeps your view more clear.
A hidden tilt rod may need to be split allowing separate control of the upper and lower slats, depending on the height of your window. However, the central tilt rod is easy to operate and can hold more slats on a single rod, perfect for taller windows if you do not want to have the rod split for separate control of the upper and lower sections.
Choose Your Frame
Depending how deep your windows are recessed, you can choose from our variety of both inside mount or outside mount frames. Usually you can rule out Z-Frames (inside mount) or Deco Frames (outside mount) as you likely do not want to take away from or cover up the existing colonial style trim surrounding your windows.
This makes our L-Frame a great option for either inside mount or outside mount. You can check out our frame profiles and even print the true-to-size templates from our measuring guides to see what fits best in your window.
If the depth of your window accommodates an inside mount, you can drill the frame within the recess of the window opening and not worry about the trim at all.
For an outside mount, the shutter frame will partially cover a portion of the trim in order for the frame to mount on top, and push the shutters out away from the glass so you will have enough depth/clearance for the slats to rotate open and closed without hitting the glass.
Though your molding may not be a perfectly flat surface, you can use shims, snap shims, or a spirit level when installing to be sure the shutter frame stays level, giving you a perfect square area to hang your shutter panels with ease.
Check out our online gallery for inspiration on designs from our previous happy customers. Our DIY video guides will also walk you through design, measuring and installation. As with any project, you can always send a picture of your window to our shutter experts for help designing the right shutters for your home.