PLANTATION SHUTTERS
The Shutter Shop have over 30 years of specialising in interior plantation shutters, manufactured using the highest quality materials. We offer the highest quality of wooden shutters as well as MDF shutters, plastic shutters, waterproof shutters and aluminium shutters.
We provide our customers the most comprehensive range of materials in all shutter styles and options available in the UK.
We pride ourselves on the broad range of our products and the quality of the craftsmanship as well as the friendly, tailored service we offer.
SHUTTER MATERIALS
SHUTTER STYLES
PLANTATION SHUTTERS MEASURE & FIT SERVICE
We are able to offer you a free measurement service for your plantation shutters, where our expert surveyors will be able to guide you through our range, in order for you to determine the best product for your windows. With the shutters professionally measured and installed, we can guarantee that they will fit perfectly to your windows.
If you would like an initial idea of costs, you can calculate an estimate using our cost calculator. You will be surprised how affordable made to measure plantation shutters can be!
SHUTTER COLOURS
While our core colours are as popular as ever, trends change and our colours do with them. Our Plantation Shutters can look great in colours or stains and depending on the product we have a range of around 30 core painted finishes and 15 stains to choose from as standard.
However, if you have something specific we offer a offer custom colour matching service including Dulux Trade, RAL, Paint & Paper Library, Fired Earth and Little Greene colours.
WHY INSTALL PLANTATION SHUTTERS?
Shutters are a perfect window treatment: elegant, stylish, easy to install and durable. Adding shutters to a room can enhance its appearance and add value to your home.
Privacy is often the initial reason to install shutters: create a barrier to the outside world, but keeping a control on the amount of light that can enter your rooms.
All our plantation shutters materials can made as café style, tier on tier or full height. Within these core styles we can add features such as a "split louvre", a perfect solution for ground floor rooms, allowing you to keep the lower part shut, ensuring maximum privacy, but with the ability to adjust the louvre opening only in the upper part of the window, to allow maximum light into the room.
Energy saving is another great advantage of using interior shutters, because they help reducing the quantity of heath that can escape through the window. In particular, In particular, MDF shutters ensure an even higher degree of insulation, due to the natural insulating properties of the wood
Aesthetic and Practical. While we all appreciate a practical solution to any problem, even one as simple as what to put on a window. It helps if the solution looks good too! Plantation shutters are so versatile that practicality is rarely and issue and as the UK’s fastest growing window covering – they must look pretty good too
Last, but not least, easy to clean and virtually maintenance free!
Our shutters are guaranteed from 3 to 5 years, depending on the shutter range chosen but will last much longer if treated well and many of our customers shutters from 20 years ago are still going strong.
However as the component parts can be replaced, should the cat use them as scratching pole or your kids decide to use the window as a football goal (we have seen it) we can help with replacements.
If you have a repair or maintenance question – contact our team to see how we can help
WHAT ARE PLANTATION SHUTTERS AND WHY ARE THEY CALLED THIS?
Originally, plantation shutters were louvred shutters that were installed on the windows of large mansions in the southern American states, where plantations of cotton, sugar or tobacco were very common. The louvred shutters became a standard feature of those properties, because large and heavy curtains were not an ideal solution for a highly humid climate.
Although in the UK the weather is quite different, plantation shutters have become very popular here too, because they provide many advantages compared to other window dressing like roller blinds, Venetian blinds or curtains. They are also stylish, and can fit well both in modern rooms and in very traditional ones. You can browse our shutter gallery to see how many variations of styles, shapes and colours are available!
WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A TRADITIONAL SHUTTER AND PLANTATION SHUTTERS?
The main difference is that plantation shutters have louvers (otherwise knows a slats or blades) controlled via either a hidden, central or offset tilt rod. These adjustable louvres allow the light through the windows, in the same way as with “Venetian Blinds”
Traditional shutters are normally referred to as solid shutters, and their main purpose is to block out the light and to add security to a window, but they do not allow the regulation of the amount of light entering the room in the same way as Plantation Shutters. Many Georgian properties still have these solid shutters which have the ability to fold back into recesses around the window and in some cases we have been able to replace these with modern traditional solid shutters.
PLANTATION SHUTTERS, PLANTATION BLINDS OR SHUTTER BLINDS
There are many names used to describe Plantation Shutters these days, however, they can technically mean different things.
Plantation shutters and plantation blinds are two different products. The common feature is the presence of slats (or louvres). “Plantation”, in this case, would be the word identifying this feature. Shutter Blinds could be used to describe both of these products.
In reality, they are nowadays used as synonyms, while the term “Venetian Blinds” are now used to identify the slatted blinds. At the Shutter Shop we supply all and happy to clarify any product
WHAT ARE PLANTATION SHUTTERS MADE OF?
The most commonly used materials for shutters are MDF (Medium Density Fibreboard), wood and plastic. MDF is a man-made material, that derives from recycled wood fibres (pine usually) pressed with resin. The great advantage of MDF is that it stands better humidity and heat changes compared to wood. It is also a much more affordable material, and for this reason our ranges of MDF shutters (Antigua and Bermuda) are extremely popular among our clients.
Both ranges have a UV resistant poly-propylene coating around the MDF but the core of the shutter is still hardwood. This makes it durable and provides protection against scratches, knicks and dents!
The primary difference between Antigua Shutters and Bermuda Shutters is that Bermuda has a plastic louvre which allows us to manufacture wider panels and provides increased water resistance.
For our wooden shutters, we use a variety of wood obtained from sustainable sources. Depending on the finish of your shutter different materials are specifically selected. Typically Basswood Abachi, White teak and commonly paulownia are used. For our stains we use our Fiji - Paulownia Wooden shutters. This is a fast growing species meaning the grain tends to be wider than other slower growing species. When it is stained the beauty of the natural grain is highlighted.
Our Cuba Hardwood Shutter combines the products above by incorporating a hardwood/MDF frame with a Hardwood panels.
We also offer a fully waterproof Shutter – Java.
Java is technically a plastic, but don’t let that fool you. It looks incredibly similar to our MDF and Wooden Shutters. Made from ABS, a hardwearing plastic that can be moulded to the size and shape we need, Java is offered with stainless steel hinges and screws making it suitable for wet rooms.
Unlike other plastic shutter products available this makes the our waterproof shutter tough and durable.
If you want to learn more about the different qualities of MDF and wooden shutters, you can read our blog post "MDF or Wooden Shutters?".
We also use ABS, for waterproof shutters, that are used in high humidity rooms like bathroom or kitchen. Our 100 % waterproof Java range belongs to this category.
WHAT DO PLANTATION SHUTTERS COST?
The cost is based on product range and the surface area that the shutters will cover. The easiest way to answer this question is to direct you to our online shutter cost calculator, where you can have a rough estimate of the cost of the various shutter ranges. The costs are based on a DIY installation. For a complete supply and fit service, you can contact us for a free survey, so we can take the measurements and send you a an accurate quotation with a full breakdown of costs.
WHICH PLANTATION SHUTTERS ARE BEST?
The simplest answer is the best plantation shutters are the ones that suit your technical requirements, aesthetic preference and budget. Wooden shutters would be ideal if you want a particular colour or stain, but they would not be ideal in rooms like bathrooms!
You can browse our range of shutters for more information or you can contact us for some help and advice: 30-year experience in the field cannot be reduced to a few lines in a blog post!
ARE PLANTATION SHUTTERS IN STYLE?
We are not the best people to ask this, because our answer would be clearly a strong YES! However, you can see many interior design blogs, or specialised websites where plantation shutters are often suggested as ideal window treatment.
Here some examples:
MORE INFO ON THE SHUTTER SHOP
For over 30 years the Shutter Shop has been supplying high quality shutters in London and beyond. You can read something more about the Shutter Shop's story in this interview, published on the Chelsea Design Quarter website.
Our shutters can be purchased directly online, here on our website. This is an ideal solution for DIY enthusiasts. But if you prefer to rely on our experience in measuring and fitting, you can book a free survey and one of our surveyors will come to your home to measure your windows and to provide you with the necessary information. No pushy salesmen, but honest and professional advice. In particular, if you have bay windows or specially shaped windows, our bespoke shutters will ensure a perfect fit.
If you are looking for more inspiration, you can also take a look at our gallery or our Instagram, where you can find fine examples of recent installations, in any window shape and room type.
You can rely on The Shutter Shop: high quality, competitive price and an unparalleled customer service.