If you want a light, beautiful window covering, there are few choices that have become more popular than the louvred wooden shutter.

Also known as plantation shutters, louvred shutters have become the look of the moment, because they provide a particularly bright addition to a room and allow for both carefully controlled privacy and a lot of natural light.

Because they are primarily associated with quite warm, summery designs they tend to be sold either with a wood treatment to bring out the natural grain of the solid wood, white or a very light off-white or neutral shade such as beige.

Because a lot of modern interior designs prioritise lighter shades to create lighter, airier looks, a lot of people tend to stick to white to complete that contemporary look, but if you want to create a style that stands out, there is absolutely no reason why you cannot opt for a different colour to your shutters.

Whilst the only practical limit is your imagination, here are some colours other than white that look great on plantation shutters.

 

Connecting The Inside To The Outside

For rooms that either have a design inspired by nature or link the interior and exterior spaces of the home, natural shades and earthy tones such as blues and greens can be exceptionally popular and effective, particularly in combination with other natural textures and greenery.

 

A Striking Focal Point

White shutters tend to be relatively unobtrusive, which helps them to fit into practically any potential design concept.

Using a bold colour choice such as yellow, purple or pink immediately draws the eye and often causes a reflective contrast into the room itself. 

Typically, if you are willing to be more minimalist with the rest of a room’s design, using bold shutters can make it stand out stylistically.

 

A Richer Ambience

By contrast, black, dark grey, charcoal and richer shades create a darker, more elegant ambience, particularly when used in contrast to a lighter colour scheme.

Desire is often a strong enough motivation to have beautiful wooden shutters fitted to your home. 

They often brighten the look of a home both inside and out, and seeing them revitalise a nearby property can be enough of an incentive to get them fitted.

However, beautiful, timeless aesthetics aside, sometimes louvred or solid shutters are not merely desirable but are necessary, helping to fix fundamental issues with a home’s design and improving the quality of life for the people living in it.

Here are some reasons why you may need shutters in your home.

 

If You Feel Exposed In Your Own Home

Privacy is a fundamental need for so many of us. If we feel we are being watched we can never truly feel comfortable, which is a significant problem if you feel that way in your own home.

Closing the curtains is somewhat of a blunt way to solve the problem, but louvres can allow for natural light to fill the room without feeling like neighbours and passers-by can see into your house.

 

If You Struggle With Temperature Control

Insulation is a common issue with many older homes, particularly around windows, leading to certain places getting too warm in the summer and too cold in winter.

Wood, as a natural insulator, is very good at helping to reduce heat loss compared to curtains.

 

If You Live Near A Busy Road

Traffic, passers-by and noise from nearby buildings can ruin quiet days and lead to sleepless nights. However, with wood being not only a good heat insulator but an excellent sound insulator, shutters can help provide a better night’s sleep.

 

If You Don’t Want To Clean Your Curtains

Cleaning curtains is a lengthy, awkward process that often requires a stepladder, a large washing machine and considerable time with an exposed window. Sometimes curtains need to be professionally cleaned, which is both more expensive and more time-consuming.

Wooden shutters, by contrast, can be easily and simply wiped clean and require almost no maintenance to take care of, saving time, energy, money and stress in the process.

Window dressing is so often seen as a binary choice; you either have solid wood shutters, blinds or curtains, with no room for a mix of materials and styles.

There can be some cases where a combination does not work; Venetian blinds and plantation shutters are somewhat redundant even if they could be practically fitted to the same window.

However, the belief that you have to choose between curtains or shutters is simply not the case, and there are a lot of reasons why you might want to have both, especially in bedrooms and in rooms with large windows.

Curtains, particularly thick luxury curtains, look fantastic as a frame for windows and if they are made from the right material and with a cut and style that suits the window, are a very effective way of blocking out light when they are closed.

The problem is that this is largely a binary choice; either the curtains are closed and block out all light, or they let in direct natural light, which can be uncomfortable on a particularly bright day and lead to the rather unusual tendency for some people to keep their curtains closed to avoid the glare of the sun.

This can be particularly frustrating for bedroom windows that face south or east, as the glare from the sun can be uncomfortable for someone who has just woken up

One solution is to have another set of curtains made of a thicker material that can be opened separately, but this can be unwieldy to use and make a window frame look disorganised.  

A more effective solution, therefore, is to use louvred shutters such as those found in plantation shutters to control the amount of light entering the room.

They could be set in the evening to be closed entirely or open to provide a comfortable level of light before the curtains are closed.

Over the past few years, there has been a growing trend towards more solid window covers, away from curtains and even blinds in favour of solid wood shutters with adjustable louvres.

These shutter systems are popular because they look fantastic, fit a wide range of different interior design styles, at once fit traditional and modern architectural aesthetics and are easy to maintain and clean.

Because of this, a lot of homeowners are enquiring about potentially getting them installed, either for their own sakes or to potentially help improve the curb appeal of their home. 

However, whilst in many conventional homes it is clear that they can be fitted and provide an immediate benefit, not all homes are necessarily conventionally designed.

Some have particularly long or wide windows, whilst others have strange shapes that do not necessarily match the square or oblong footprint of a conventional louvred shutter system.

These include windows that have arches or semicircular sunbursts, windows with triangular slopes or even windows that are rounded, hexagonal or octagonal, completely in defiance of the typical quadrilateral window shape.

The typical solution in all of these cases is to fit curtains instead, since ultimately the shape does not matter, but this is not always an elegant solution and if your heart is set on blinds and shutters, bespoke shutters are very much an option.

These can come in a variety of forms. The first and most complex is to have custom-designed louvres that match the shape of your window. These are especially important for round or uniquely polygonal windows, but it is also not the only option.

The simplest option for people with arches or other unconventional parts to their windows is to opt for cafe-style shutters that only cover the square or rectangular part of the window, which are fantastic if the ultimate goal is privacy rather than light control.

Finally, there are several bespoke choices such as solid panels to cover the rounded parts of the window and plantation shutters for the rest, and an expert will be happy to discuss your needs and options.

With much of Britain being blanketed in snow this month, now may seem a strange time to be thinking about a world getting warmer. But to focus on a few flurries in what is, after all, the middle of winter to the exclusion of all other evidence would be highly unwise.

Although the record-breaking global average temperature in 2023 may not be felt just now, one only has to go back over the past few weeks to recall some severe storms, which are now hitting the UK (and elsewhere) with greater frequency than historical norms.

However, you don’t need to be one of those unfortunate to have their home flooded to appreciate that residential properties will need to change to accommodate changes to the climate. That can include the window coverings you use.

Solid wood shutters can be a great option for a changing climate for several reasons. Firstly, the fact wood has great insulating qualities means they are ideal for dealing with the cold days we can still have: Brighton has not suddenly become Barbados. This can also keep out any draughts that sneak through the windows or any flaws around them.

At the same time, the fact that shutters can keep out the hot sun is something that will be useful in any summer, but even more so as they get hotter in the south of England. If days at or close to 40 C are to become the norm, it makes sense to have shutters, which were first popularised in southern Europe partly because they can keep homes cool in the heat.

Finally, the wood itself is an important consideration. If we want to care about the environment going forward, the use of organic materials without embedded carbon is a must.

The key with wood, of course, is it is organic and, provided it comes from sustainable forests, its use becomes not just a low-carbon option, but also encourages more forestry, helping suck more carbon from the air by the most natural means.

For all these reasons, going for wooden shutters is a great choice for a changing climate.

Typically, when people are looking for beautiful wooden shutters, the aim is to renovate the appearance of their home and make it a more pleasant place to spend a lot of time.

After all, for many people, their home is their sanctuary and where they spend the overwhelming majority of their free time, so making it look beautiful and feel comfortable is essential largely for its own sake.

However, for people hoping to move home and navigate the property market, could plantation shutters potentially help boost the value of their home more than the cost of fitting them?

The answer, rather surprisingly, is yes, albeit in somewhat subtle ways besides the obvious appeal shutters have for a range of different interior design styles. Shutters fit a lot of different housing modes and at the front of the house boost kerb appeal. 

One part of this is a boost to potential light levels; because they are far better suited to adjusting the level of natural light to provide both additional privacy and better lighting, both of which are not only highly prioritised and prized by potential buyers but are also relatively subjective.

A common selling trick is to use neutral, light-coloured walls and mirrors parallel to the windows in order to reflect as much natural light around the room to increase its perceived space, something shutters are very useful at helping with.

As well as this, shutters improve the security of the windows by providing an additional solid layer of security as well as the added perception of security that comes from a more open and solid deterrent to window entry. With a potential buyer, perception is everything.

Finally, although this might not always be an immediately accessible benefit, shutters improve insulation, which can improve energy efficiency statistics that can make a home more viable to some buyers.

Whilst other types of blinds can sometimes show their age quite quickly, wooden plantation shutters are exceptionally elegant and hardwearing, lasting potentially for many years if looked after properly, a process that often does not take a lot of work.

This low maintenance, high functionality and beautiful appearance have made plantation shutters the favoured choice of many homeowners, but there may come a point due to misuse, age or bad luck where an issue could develop on one of the louvres.

This most commonly takes the form of a single one of the multiple louvre slats coming loose and sliding down even when the latch lever is lifted.

This is, thankfully, very easily fixed with the help of a Phillips cross-head screwdriver. Find the tension screws at each side and tighten them a bit whilst the shutters are closed. This will keep them in line with the rest of the shutter and should keep their position for a while.

They can sometimes also become misaligned, typically the result of a loose alignment pin that connects the louvre with the latch lever. Simply open the louvres so they are parallel to the frame, push the pin back into place and the issue should be very easily and clearly fixed.

The other, more serious issue that can occur after a long time, impact damage or a lot of temperature changes and warping that can come during particularly bitter temperatures or unusual amounts of pressure is broken parts of the frame or louvres themselves.

In some smaller cases of louvre damage, if you can live with a slight blemish to the shutters themselves, wood glue could potentially be used to fix it and put it back into place.

Larger damage might need an expert to replace the louvre itself, and broken frames will often require the entire shutter to be swapped out for a new one. 

The most important part of a set of shutters is the louvres, as they are the part of the wooden shutter’s design that allows for the light in the room to be carefully, delicately and easily adjusted.

Because of this, it is easy to assume that their initial use was found in Venetian blinds of plantation shutters. However the concept of louvres had an earlier, far less conventional use in the Middle Ages.

The initial use for a louvre in a home was very different and looked exceptionally different to the flat, adjustable wooden slats seen today, and instead were more adjustable lantern-like fixtures found primarily in larger kitchens in mediaeval homes.

The traditional louvre, first used in English in the early 14th century, was a domed structure, similar to what is often found at the top of a steeple. 

It was used before the creation of more advanced chimney structures that funnelled smoke and hot air out of the kitchen, by instead providing a safe outlet for the smoke and allowing light into the kitchen without letting in lots of rain and snow into the house.

Initially starting off as a barrel, they would take increasingly elaborate forms made of pottery, before entering their final form that started to resemble modern louvre systems.

They had a series of wooden slats that could be opened and closed simply by pulling on a string. By this point the concept of the louvred window covering was already starting to be used, allegedly named after the French palace of the same name.

The word’s origin is something of a mystery. The term louvre allegedly originated from the Old French word “lovier”, which is believed to have either come from the Latin term for lobby “lodarium” or the French word “ouvrir” (to open).

Ultimately, its much more common use in shutters has won out since, but it is a fascinating example of how the concept evolves.

For exceptional light control throughout the year, it is difficult to find a better, more solid or more versatile solution than adjustable wooden shutters or Venetian blinds.

Taking advantage of adjustable louvres, both shutters and Venetian blinds have been the go-to solutions for elegant, professional window coverings for over a century, with the choice relying on whether the greater adjustment of the latter is more important than the solid aesthetics of the former.

The latter was particularly popular at the end of the 19th century up onwards, as they helped to manage and regulate air quality and light for the rapidly growing industry of increasingly tall buildings.

The skyscraper was a marvel of engineering that defined and formed an iconic part of the landscape of the United States, particularly in the city of New York.

Bigger buildings lead to new issues, however. Whilst offices with sufficiently large windows always have problems with glare and harsh natural light, this is particularly problematic with skyscrapers due to the more acute angles the sun’s rays come from.

This is where blinds came in as a vital solution, and due to the differing requirements of light during different points of the day, the versatility of Venetian blinds was required.

Many skyscrapers, including 30 Rock (aka the RCA/Comcast Building), took advantage of their versatility but the largest order for Venetian blinds ever made was for the Empire State Building, which was the tallest building in the world on completion.

This tremendously significant order went to a company in Burlington, Vermont. At the time, the company in question was one of the biggest in the area and one of the longest-surviving companies to specialise in Venetian blinds.

This huge publicity helped to increase sales even during the Great Depression. However, by the time the Second World War had ended, the company involved with the biggest order of Venetian blinds in history was beginning to wind down, finally closing by 1954.

As we enter the bitter chill of winter, homeowners are more mindful than ever of any ways they can find to lower their energy bills and keep warm for less.

One of the best ways to do this is to ensure your home is well insulated and is not losing too much heat through window frames, and one of the easiest ways to help with this is through the use of some of the most beautiful window coverings money can buy.

Whilst most people opt for wooden shutters for their aesthetic benefits, their solid construction, inherently insulating material and the way in which they fit the entire window means that they can also help to reduce energy bills.

According to a study by English Heritage, well-fitting shutters cut the amount of heat loss from a window frame by 58 per cent, not only potentially cutting energy bills in half but also beating blinds and blackout curtains as the most effective way to beat the winter chill.

Making the most of this is a simple matter of keeping the louvres open during the day. This allows light and heat from the sun to get in and warm up the room naturally, and then when the sun starts to set, simply close the louvres and keep the room’s accumulated heat.

This barrier means that the central heating system needs to work less hard to warm up the rest of the house, using less energy and less fuel, which translates to a smaller bill to pay to your power company, as well as more reliable boilers that do not need to work as hard.

Unlike other window covers, the opposite is also true in summer. Closing the louvres or leaving them closed will keep heat out during especially oppressive hot days.

This means that a beautiful, aesthetically pleasing choice for your windows can also be a practical energy-saving tool as well.