While the versatility of plantation shutters makes them suitable for any window, there are separate optional styles to further suit any window you choose. An excellent choice for ground floor windows tends to be café style shutters. These shutters are typically half the height of the window and allow for privacy with the addition of unobstructed light from the upper half of the window.
[more-or-less-start] The term café style shutters is taken from the aesthetics of Parisian-style half shutters, commonly found in patisseries, cafés and restaurant front windows. Bringing this same functionality into your home, you can allow perfect light into your front rooms, lounges and dining rooms – also giving you the option of semi or total privacy from eye height.
While café style shutters are thought of as half height on your window, we would recommend matching up the highest point to the transom of your window. This keeps the shutters matching the general design and feel of the interior and exterior of the window. Keeping your home looking fantastic from both the inside and out is often overlooked and people design their shutters purely based from internal perspectives. Ensure your panel widths and heights match up to window panel widths and heights. This gives a flowing look from the outside of your house and also ensures no “doubling up” when it comes to light blockage.
Café style shutters still have the full functionality of a normal full height plantation shutter. In saying this we mean that the panels can still be positioned in both their open and closed position. In addition, their louvers can also be adjusted open or closed. This gives you the option to open up more light to your window without fully opening the shutters. Typically, café style shutters will not be opened fully and instead just be adjusted by their slats, as you already have significant room lighting from the open section above your shutters.
Just like other designs of plantation shutter, café style shutters can have multiples of panels that can fold or “concertina” back against each other to your wall. When thinking about the amount of panels for your window shutters you must consider the width of your windows. If this width is over a certain amount we may need to separate these shutters into separate frames or use what is known as a t-post to create new anchors for your hinged panels. This ensures your shutters will not drop over time. If you’re unsure of “how far is too far?” you can contact our team straight away for advice, or feel free to place your order and one of our team will always point out if they think a design could do with any improvements.
When choosing your café style shutters there are a number of considerations regarding the wood type they are constructed from and the room you’re installing them in. While uncommon, café style shutters can be installed into a bathroom – and in this case a Polyvinyl option should be chosen to give you additional protection against splashing and damp. In more modern properties our Poplar hardwood range is a sure favourite, giving a smooth and perfectly finished appearance. Finally, in a more period country home our Premium Elm can keep in place with traditional design. Its deep grain gives a true Country Midwest feel and classic look.
Café style shutters are suitable to be installed within a recess using an inside mount frame, set away from a sash window using an outside mount frame. These different styles of frame ensure your shutter panels are positioned correctly to the window and have a tight and secure fixing, so the majority of shutter orders are placed with a frame – as is our default order. If you wish to order without a frame, please do specify this to our team.
If you do plan to purchase café style shutters for your window, your best place to start is with our measuring guide. When correctly followed, this guide will ensure your shutters are measured correctly for our factory to build your perfect plantation shutters. Then, when the point of installing your shutters comes, you won’t be in for any surprises! You need not fear with your measuring though, once you’ve placed your order and it comes through to us, one of our highly trained team will pick up your order and give you a detailed phone call back to ensure no mistakes have been made and that you’re perfectly happy with every aspect.
The Shutter Store staff are here and ready to help you with any questions you have on café style shutters for your home. If you have any difficulties with our measuring guides or any further questions on the benefits of café style shutters, then please do contact our customer care team where we can have a no pressure, no obligation chat to assist your ordering process!
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