Plantation shutters are a gorgeous addition to any room and can really brighten up your house. If you are wanting shutters for brightening a room, you will want to consider the shutter style, shutter color, and slat size.
Shutter Style
The beauty of plantation shutters is that all styles allow you flexibility in privacy and light blockage / light entry. Here is a breakdown of the difference in each style and what that means for how much light enters the room.
Café Style
Café style shutters cover only the lower portion of a window, great for privacy while allowing maximum light entry.
Light will flood into the room from above your shutters, but you can keep the slats open or closed to control privacy in the lower section. Of course, you can also fully swing the shutter panels open to let in the most sunlight.
Full Height
Our most popular style, full height shutters allow you to open all or a portion of the slats. You can rotate the slats 90 degrees to a fully open position for the most sunlight or keep them pointed up or down at an angle for more privacy.
Full height shutters with a mid-rail allow you to keep the bottom section of slats closed for privacy, and the top section open for light. You can also swing the shutter panels open a full 180 degrees when desired.
Tier on Tier
Tier on tier shutters are split at your specified divide point, so that the upper panels open completely separately from the lower panels. This allows you to have full light entry at the top of the window during the day, and close the panels for privacy at night, for example.
Do shutters make a room dark?
You may be concerned that shutters will make a room look too dark (or that you won’t be able to darken the room when desired). That is far from the case. Plantation shutters give you more flexibility than other window treatments.
All our
faux wood shutters have slats designed to close flat in the upwards direction for maximum light blockage and privacy when they are closed.
If you are looking for the most light-blockage,
full solid raised panel shutters will darken a room the most. You will have to swing the panels open to let light into the room, but you can still control how much light comes in by folding the panels partially open or swinging them the full 180 degrees to fully expose the window.
How to Lighten up a Dark Room
Shutter Color
A light or bright color such us Bright White or a Natural stain color can brighten a room.
.jpg?width=650&height=867 "Shoot-1-(18).jpg")
Or if you are going for bold and bright, you can let us know a Sherwin Williams or Benjamin Moore color, or send us in a swatch to match. This color matching option is available in our Classic Poplar Hardwood range.
Slat Size
Our slats range from 2 ½" to 4 ½" so any option you choose will give you plenty of sunlight when the slats are open.
Larger slats will let the most sunlight into a room when they are open. The larger the slat size you choose, the farther apart they will be spaced, and therefore you will have fewer slats and less solid material in each panel.
Check out our galleries for inspiration or contact our shutter experts today for help choosing the best style, color, and slat size for your windows. Doing your own measure and install will save you 40% or more compared to a full measure & install service. Now that’s a bright idea!
This post was brought to you by Yasmeen, one of The Shutter Store USA's experienced shutter consultants. Contact our team, our shutter experts are here to help you find the perfect shutter style, material, slat size and frame mount, ideal for any room in your home. We're here to help!