There’s a lot to consider when choosing indoor plantation shutters for your home. You have choices of louver sizes, different styles, and colors, as well as the materials of the window shutters. There are also decisions on what color you want for your shutters. These options can be discussed in an in-home consultation with a professional window treatment company to help choose the best plantation shutters for your home.
A Quick Guide to Plantation Shutters
Learning about the types of materials that interior shutters are available in can help you to choose the best option for your distinct situation in the windows and doors of your home. It can help you in your quest to find out which plantation shutters are best for your home. The three main categories are wooden, vinyl, and PVC.
Wooden Plantation Shutters
Hardwood is the premium shutter material. It’s the lightest in weight and very durable, although they don’t hold up well in rooms with high heat and humidity, such as bathrooms and kitchens. The wood used in this type of shutter is usually basswood or poplar, which are very popular in the furniture industry for the beautiful whorls and swirls of the wood grain.
Hardwood shutters are premium and high-quality products with natural beauty. Furniture-grade wood is blemish free, lasts longer, looks nicer, and resists splintering, bleeding, and warping. The color of stain or paint you choose for them will accentuate the natural beauty even more.
Wooden plantation shutters work great in your living room to add an instant upgrade to your curbside appeal in your home. They also work well in a home office because you can tilt the louvers to have natural daylight at an angle where you don’t get glare on your computer screen. Wooden shutters also dress your bedrooms with a lot of style and beauty.
Vinyl Plantation Shutters
Vinyl plantation shutters are a less expensive option than hardwood shutters, although they look almost identical to each other. Vinyl is moisture-resistant and weather-resistant but may have structural problems over time.
Hollow vinyl shutters are even less expensive than solid ones; however, this material will start to sag over time because it isn’t reinforced, making it a poor option for large windows or doors.
Vinyl plantation shutters will hold up much better than hardwood shutters in your bathrooms and kitchen because they resist bowing, bending, and fading or discoloring when exposed to the sunlight. This type of shutter is best for smaller windows to maintain structural integrity.
PVC Plantation Shutters
Composite plantation shutters such as PVC, engineered wood, or laminate interior shutters are another inexpensive material choice on the market. These materials are very cost-effective but are less durable to wear and tear than the other types of shutters. MDF is made from a combination of glue and sawdust and doesn’t hold up well.
PVC shutters do hold up to humidity and heat and can be used in your bathrooms and kitchens for a lower cost option in shutters. You must realize that they will only last for a short time compared to some other types of plantation shutters, though.
Features That Can Make Plantation Shutters Work For Your Home
Shutters lend themselves to being able to be customized to fit any shape of window or door. Specialty-shaped windows are an architectural feature in homes that needs to be highlighted, and shutters can accent their style. Shutters also swing open, so they won’t cover up the beautiful parts of your windows or elegant trim work that you may have around them.
You can choose how your shutters are mounted, which designates how they look when you open them and how they operate.
- Full-height plantation shutters cover the entire window, with one panel on the left and one on the right. Some of these styles of shutters have a mid rail in the center to let you operate the louvers on the top and bottom independently of each other.
- Cafe-style plantation shutters only cover the bottom half of your window with two panels side by side. This style works great in windows that don’t get excessive sunlight and heat because you can still have natural light from the top but some level of privacy with the bottom covered. This style also looks lovely in bay windows in your dining or living room to accent the shape. It’s also less expensive to install custom café shutters because there is less material to decrease your costs by about half for each window.
- Tier-on-tier shutters cover the entire window with one set of two panels on the top and another set of two panels on the bottom. This allows you to open, close, and adjust the louvers separately, with the tilt bar on the top and the base for the ultimate lighting control with plantation shutters.
- Solid shutters cover the entire window with one panel on each side, like full-height shutters, but there are no louvers. They are just concrete panels of materials.
- Tracked shutters work exceptionally well for sliding glass patio doors, so the doorway is not obstructed by traffic going in and out. When these plantation shutters are open, they fold accordion style and out of the way of the door, unlike other window treatments that cover part of the door.
Looking For Wood Plantation Shutters for Your Home? We Can Help!
At Desert Window Wear, we understand it can be a big decision when choosing the best plantation shutters for your home, and we are here to help you with this task.
We offer a FREE in-home consultation with samples so you can see and feel what your products will be like. We can paint or stain your shutters in any color you desire to match your home’s decor. We carry only the highest quality shutters, so they will be long-lasting and durable for you for years to come.
Our experienced staff members and design experts are here to help you find the right shutters. Contact us today to learn more about beautiful natural hardwood plantation shutters!