Shutters are a part of many homes throughout the world and while some still serve a functional purpose in other countries, in the United States the functionality of shutters has largely been forgotten. If you drive through older parts of your town or city, you’ll likely notice shutters on some of the older homes in a strictly aesthetic sense. In other parts of the country, original shutters may still remain on homes or buildings constructed in the 19th century.
Regardless of their function today, there are some things that make shutters visually appealing in homes of any generation, but there are some things that should be done to ensure that they’re done “right”. Chances are, you’ve been doing shutters all wrong!
The Original Purpose of Shutters
To make sense of how to do shutters the right way in your home, it’s important to understand just what their original purpose was in the first place. Take a stroll through Paris, in Germany, or throughout parts of Europe, and you’ll likely see operable shutters as they were intended. While they may not be used any longer, their purpose remains the same.
For the most part, shutters were used for privacy, protection, and secondarily for airflow. Shutters often are hinged on both vertical sides of a window and close together in the middle allowing the user to lock them from the inside. Some shutters have louvers that allowed for enhanced airflow, some even had operable louvers, while others were simply solid steel or wood.
Understanding the use of shutters will greatly help you craft or install shutters that make both historical sense and modern aesthetic sense.
Options for Shutters
When it comes to installing or replacing shutters on a home, there are quite a few options to choose from, but not all are created equal. For older homes with existing shutters, they’re likely made out of pine or another softwood as (for the most part) they were never intended to be functional but aesthetic. Of course, you can always go back with a softer wood species for the economy but consider some other options.
Traditional shutters were composed of hardwoods that were rot and bug resistant. Spanish Cedar, Honduran Mahogony and Teak, and other local hardwoods are commonly used for functional traditional shutters as they have strong weather resistance and high tannins to prevent bug infestations. Additionally, you can go with more modern options such as PVC or vinyl, but be aware that these materials are less likely to withstand violent UV rays over time.
Properly Sizing and Placing Your Shutters
One way we’ve been doing shutters all wrong is sizing. Naturally, shutters once (and still) serve a purpose, so it stands to reason that even if your purpose is looks, you should still make them appear to have a function. This means making sure your shutters are exactly half the size of the window they’re supposed to be “covering” and that they’re placed in such a way that they fool an observer to think that they could be used.
That said, make sure that your shutters are placed on either side of your windows in a place where they could conceivably be closed even if they’re only aesthetic. Placing them too far away from the window will lessen their functional look and will make them appear even more strange. Finally, shutters should never go above or below a window as this not only looks bizarre but would have no real-life function at all.
