We may still be in summer now, but we are just a few weeks away from the start of autumn. If you are looking for new shutters, you may want to consider the best options for the colder and darker months of the year. Full height shutters are a great option.

It can be very easy to make choices about shutters based on the current weather. In a hot and sunny summer that has broken records, your focus might have been on ways they can keep you cool and deal with bright light when the sun is high in the sky.

These are important issues, but it is also worth considering other seasonal matters:

• Will your shutters also prevent you from being dazzled by low sun in late autumn and winter?

• Can your shutters provide insulation when the weather is cold?
• How well do your shutters help with non-seasonal requirements such as increasing privacy?

To give an example of the variation in requirements you will face, in midsummer, the noon-day sun above Brighton rises to nearly 63 degrees above the horizon, with a day of 16 and a half hours.

In midwinter, the sun is less than 16 degrees up at noon and the day is under eight hours long.

Why Are Full Height Shutters So Versatile?

Full height shutters can be ideal for all times of year, because they cover the entire window. This means if the window faces south and you want to avoid being dazzled by it, this can work throughout the year.

If they are made from an insulating material like wood, they can also be great for maintaining the temperature, especially in winter when they can keep the heat in.

Wood is a great natural insulator because of its cellular structure that includes a myriad of air-filled cavities. As air does not conduct heat very well, it will not pass through wood easily.

Other shutters can offer similar insulation benefits (especially if made of wood), but half-height shutters are better for windows that don’t face towards the sun at a height where the glare can come in through the uncovered part of the window.

When choosing shutters, be sure to choose them for their year-round qualities.

Whilst primarily installed for privacy purposes, as well as the fact that they look fantastic, plantation shutters have a remarkable number of additional benefits when they are fitted in the home, especially during hot weather.

This is perhaps understandable, given that louvred shutters are believed to trace back to Ancient Greece where hot summers and heatwaves would have likely been relatively common.

Here are three ways plantation shutters keep homes cool during hot summer days and heatwaves.

Plantation Shutters Are A Solid Barrier

An adjustable louvre shutter system is much thicker than curtains, blinds and other soft window dressings.

This means that it is much harder for ultraviolet rays to penetrate into the home and generate heat, as it cannot easily pass through the shutter the same way it can pass through a window. 

This effect is maximised if your windows have a UV-resistant coating.

Plantation Shutters Reflect Heat Away

Added to this is that most plantation shutters are painted white or a particularly light shade, which improves their ability to reflect light away from the room.

Whilst white shutters are typically the result of tradition rather than necessarily practicality, they do provide an additional benefit in the same way a white roof does.

You can even adjust the reflective properties by tilting the louvres; whilst keeping them completely shut will bounce UV rays away, pointing them at an angle can also reflect them upwards and away or towards the upper part of your room if you want greater control of the heat in your room.

Plantation Shutters Create A Thermal Barrier

What makes plantation shutters unlike other forms of blinds or shutters is that they form a solid barrier between your window and the rest of your room, and when closed entirely, create a barrier that hot air struggles to penetrate.

It works in the same way double glazing works, stopping air movement and thus breaking the convection cycle.

It’s no secret that in recent years the UK has experienced some of its hottest weather on record. This year we’ve already had one significant heat wave and there are likely to be more on the way in the coming months. 

This can present a challenge for UK homeowners because our properties aren’t generally designed to stay cool. In fact, many were constructed when keeping warm was a greater priority.

While large windows are wonderful for letting in the light, they also mean that our rooms can heat up considerably due to solar gain and higher temperatures, especially in the summer months. 

So, what is the solution to rooms that overheat largely due to having big windows? The answer is to invest in window shutters. 

In fact, if keeping a room cool is your main aim for fitting this kind of window treatment, then solid panel shutters are likely the way to go. 

As their name suggests, these are solid panels of wood that cover the entirety of your window and block out both light – and that means in the summer they are also highly effective at preventing overheating in your home.

What’s more, these kinds of shutters are available in a “half and half” or “tier on tier” style, which means the shutter itself is split for the top and bottom of the window. This allows you to open them to let some light in and in doing so better regulate your indoor temperature.

As an added bonus, solid panel shutters aren’t only excellent at preventing spaces from overheating in the summer. They are also effective at blocking draughts in the winter and at keeping heat in, which means they can make your property warmer when it counts too. 

Solid panel shutters are particularly well-suited to period properties where they complement the look and feel of older homes, so you don’t need to compromise on style to create a comfortable living environment for you and your family.

The British summer can be a mixed bag of stifling hot days and soggy wet ones, but whether it is sunny or drizzly, you’ll be able to enjoy more hours of sunlight as we approach the summer solstice. 

June 21st is nearly always the longest day of the year for the northern hemisphere, which is when the earth is tilted towards the sun the most, meaning Brits will see as much as 17 hours of daylight. 

In comparison, on the shortest day of the year (December 21st), there is less than eight hours of daylight. 

While the longer days during the summer months can mean enjoying the garden until late into the evening, going for runs after work, morning strolls at sunrise, and fitting more into your day, it can also be challenging for those who struggle to sleep unless it is pitch black. 

With the sun not setting until nearly 10pm and rising before 5am, some Brits may find it difficult to stay asleep if light seeps into their bedroom in the morning. 

That is why full-height and tier-on-tier shutters are better choices for bedrooms over cafe style ones, as they fill the entire window and don’t allow any outside light to enter the room. 

The slats that open and close give homeowners flexibility when it comes to light control, allowing them to let some natural light into the room without having to open the shutters completely. 

Tier-on-tier shutters even enable you to have the bottom ones closed and the top ones open, so you can enjoy the sunshine without compromising your privacy. 

For anyone who needs complete darkness to fall or stay asleep, solid wooden shutters could be the best option. 

These do not have any slats so they totally shut out the light and keep the bedroom a dark and cosy space for slumber and rest. 

In addition to this, they are great at keeping the room cool during the summer months, as they stop the hot air from outside from entering the house. 

They also prevent the sunshine from beaming into the bedroom, keeping it much cooler and more pleasant to sleep in.

There are many different kinds of shutters and, if you are keen to have some in your home, there is no reason why every window might have the same type or style.

You might vary your shutter choices for a range of reasons, including different window sizes, how much privacy you need, or aesthetic choices. However, one important consideration is just how much light you want to allow through a window.

Some, such as half-height or café-style shutters, allow a clear space higher up to allow light in, with adjustable louvers covering the lower space. Or you can have full-height shutters with louvers.

However, while these can vary the light levels, solid window shutters are what you need if you desire a complete blackout.

How Can Solid Wood Shutters Aid Summer Sleep?

A particularly good reason to have these is for your bedroom if you find it hard to sleep during the summer months, when it stays light late and gets light early.

It is an urban myth that you need less sleep in summer, even if you do get more vitamin D, so this is an issue you may need to address.

In particular, a children’s bedroom that faces west could receive too much light in the evening, with some kids unwilling to go to sleep while it is light, leaving them very tired the next day.

On the other hand, with the sun rising in the east, a room facing that way may see a lot of sunlight seeping through, causing an earlier-than-planned wake-up.

Another consideration in summer is how much heat you want coming in, as well as light. Closing the blinds, curtains or shutters can help to do this. By their very nature, blackout shutters offer a complete block, which may be handy in a heatwave.

Solid wood shutters are equally useful as insulators, too, helping keep the warmth in during winter.

However, the issue of light can be a concern throughout the year. As well as natural light in summer, you may have a bright street light outside or another source of illumination. But with solid wood shutters, you can block it all out, ensuring a much better night’s sleep.

A good night’s sleep is something all of us need. Often, the combination of life, work and health conditions gets in the way of it. 

Sleep deprivation or poor quality sleep can impact both our physical and mental health. Approximately a third of people in the UK have difficulty getting to sleep or staying asleep, with severe impacts on their daily lives. 

How Does Light Impact Sleep?

One of the issues affecting sleep loss is light pollution through windows. Street lamps, security lighting, traffic and emergency services all contribute to light pollution at night in Brighton. 

Exposure to light affects our circadian rhythm, the body’s timing system that tells us when to wake and when to sleep. When artificial lighting is used at night our body thinks it needs to stay awake. 

Experts recommend enjoying natural light every day and reducing light exposure at night. Late-night screen use and bright artificial lighting can induce restlessness and we find we can’t get to sleep.

How Can Blackout Shutters Help You Sleep At Night?

With one in five of us simply not getting enough time with our heads on the pillow, blackout shutters can help optimise your sleeping environment.

Light pollution can leak around curtains and ill-fitting blinds, disturbing your sleep. Blackout shutters are an effective way to reduce light entering your bedroom. 

High-quality shutters are made to measure and installed to minimise any external light. Solid window shutters can block out light entirely.

If you prefer the visual appeal of a plantation shutter, a honeycomb blackout blind can be integrated into the frame. This allows you to regulate external light. 

What Other Reasons Are There For Installing Blackout Shutters?

A  Weekend Lie-In

When mornings become lighter in the summer, we can find ourselves wide awake far earlier than we want to be, especially on weekends. 

A blackout blind or shutters can allow you to have the lazy morning you deserve.

Night Shifts

People working night shifts have to contend with daylight and the additional noise of the world outside keeping them awake. Blackout shutters can help to reduce noise as well as light. 

Reducing Glare On Screens

A bonus of a blackout shutter is that when you’re not sleeping, it eliminates glare on screens for TV, gaming and laptop use. They’re perfect for home cinemas too. 

If you’re feeling sleep deprived, blackout shutters are a great option for getting the shut-eye you need.

The attractions of having shutters in your window are obvious. They are beautiful, practical and have good insulating qualities. But, as they come in different forms, you may wonder which of them may be the best option for your home.

Full height shutters are among the options you might consider. It is worth taking into account their specific qualities and attributes and then deciding whether these fit your desires better than any other.

Among the pros of full height shutters are:

•       Lots of flexibility over how much light comes in, as they can cover the window fully to keep all the light out, while allowing you to control how much comes in through operating each panel on its own.
•       They can be tailored to fit any window shape
•       They improve security, not least by making it harder to see what is inside a room from the outside

The cons include:

•       Full height shutters are not usually ideal for non-recessed windows
•       Place more strain on hinges than tier-on-tier shutters
•       Can be more complex to design

What Are The Best Alternatives To Full-Height Shutters?

As well as tier-on-tier shutters, cafe shutters can sometimes be a good alternative.

Overall, however, full height shutters are, by definition, very well suited to tall windows. The key difference between these and half-height or café-style shutters is that they cover the whole window, whereas café-style shutters only cover the lower half.

This may be particularly pertinent if you have very tall windows, as, for example, Regency buildings in Brighton and Hove tend to do.

If you like some light flowing in freely to your home, especially in the summer months when the sun is higher in the sky, cafe-style shutters are better. But if you want to be able to shut everything out and maintain security while maximising insulation, go for the full height option.

You may see a lot of homes and businesses around Brighton and Hove with shutters in the windows. But does that mean they would look good in your windows? And, just as importantly, what kind of shutters would be best?

There are several different kinds of shutters you can choose from:

•       Full height shutters
•       Half height shutters
•       Café-style shutters
•       Solid panel shutters

Each of these has different attributes, which means that some windows will be better suited to one style than another. This is worth considering if you are interested in having full height window shutters fitted.

Full height shutters are versatile and can be used in different window styles, but they are best used in large windows, as this is where the fact that they cover the full space becomes more useful.

This is because if you have a large window, being able to cover it fully is necessary to protect your privacy, while at the same time being able to pull the shutters up means you can get a very clear panoramic view not afforded by small windows with a narrow field of vision.

Such large windows might be bay windows, particularly tall windows, or French doors.

Why Do Full Height Shutters Suit Regency Buildings?

There are many different homes in and around Brighton that might benefit from full height shutters, from modern semis to traditional Regency properties.

In the latter case, tall sash windows were a key feature of the architectural style, especially from 1790 to 1830. It was a means of expressing affluence that was no longer subject to the 17th-century window tax that allegedly spawned the term ‘daylight robbery’.

Not everyone who lives in Regency buildings today is rich, but if you have a window like this, you are certainly blessed with lots of daylight that you wouldn’t want to be robbed of. With full-height window shutters, it will be all yours to enjoy, or to shut out as and when you wish.

If you have bay windows at your home, you may want to make them feel more private, or perhaps reduce the light streaming into your rooms if your home faces south. Window shutters can be a great option in either case. 

But what kind of shutters should you choose for your home? And should you opt for full-height shutters or cafe-style?

Let’s begin with which type of shutters you can install in bay windows. 

What type of shutters work in bay windows? 

The type of window shutters you choose for your Brighton home is largely down to personal preference, as any kind of shutter can work well in a bay window. They offer different aesthetics and options in terms of controlling the light that comes in. 

These are some of the most popular choices, but speak to our team to learn more:

• Solid panel shutters: as their name suggests, these are solid wooden panels that will block out all the light when closed. They are ideal if you are seeking greater privacy, noise insulation and if you want to make a strong design statement.

• Plantation shutters: these are shutters with adjustable slats (also known as louvres). This means you can easily control how much light enters your room without compromising on privacy. 

Noise reduction in towns and cities is becoming more of a focus now that the health impacts of excessive noise are being recognised more widely. Research has linked noise pollution to conditions including stroke, heart attack and high blood pressure. 

What height of shutters can you fit to bay windows?

You can choose shutters in different heights too. For instance, cafe-style shutters only cover half of your window, so are perfect for added privacy without blocking too much light. Meanwhile, full-height shutters cover the whole window. 

For the best of both worlds, you’ve got tier on tier shutters, which cover the whole window but which have separate bottom and top sections. This allows you to open just half of your shutter’s full height.

If you are considering adding window shutters to your home in Brighton, it is likely because you would like more privacy, especially if your property faces onto a busy street. While that’s completely understandable, it’s important to balance your need for privacy with your need for natural light. 

We all need natural light to feel at our best. Studies show that being exposed to natural light throughout the day improves our creativity, productivity and overall wellbeing. 

So, how can you satisfy your desire for more privacy without sacrificing the natural light that pours in through your windows? The answer is split shutters for windows in Brighton. 

Split shutters, which are also known as tier on tier shutters, are fitted as two independent sets of shutters per window. This means you can open the top shutters to let in light, while keeping the bottom shutters closed to give you privacy.

Essentially, these kinds of shutters give you all the benefits of full-height shutters and cafe-style shutters in one. 

But split shutters don’t just provide versatility in terms of allowing you to open both parts separately. They also allow you to tilt the slits at different angles, which gives you yet more control over what people can see through your windows as well as how much light you let into your room. 

As you can choose the finish and style of your shutters to suit your home, you can also rest assured that they’ll tie in with your interior aesthetic while improving your privacy.

In our experience, split shutters are most popular in ground-floor apartments or rooms, but they can be used in any location if you would like to have greater control over the light entering your rooms, as well as who can see what from outside. 

So, if you’d like to improve your home’s privacy without losing your natural light, split shutters could be the solution you’ve been searching for.