Help me decide between shutters and curtains!

[TheRoaringGirl]

I'm about to commit to shutters but ... I'm unsure. Our living room is quite small and I'm worried that when the shutters are on I'll regret it because more light will be blocked out than I can guess from looking at samples. What about dust? What about the fact I'll not really be able to open them away from the windows?

Then, curtains: I have no idea how to choose different curtains for each room that work colour-wise (I'm just not very good with design.) I think I'd need lush, neutral curtains (and the expense is equivalent to, if more more, than shutters.) I also only really like floor length curtains but we have radiators under the window sill so I think they would be a no no.

I can't afford to get both.

If you've read all this boring stuff, thank you. What would you do?

It’s what you say about not opening them away from the windows that would concern me — do you mean there isn’t space for them to fold back against the frame or wall, so they’re still blocking the light or partly in front of the window panes?

Yes :-( The guy selling them said that when people buy shutters they say they'll open then but, in practice, they just don't. We could open them but they'd jut out really far into the room so I guess we'd only do it to clean them / the windows

I have shutters in every room. I love them, you can change your decor and not have to replace curtains. I never fold them back. I chose fairly wide ones so they let lots of light in. One of the best things I’ve bought for the home.

Thanks @icelollycraving that's great to hear! I think I need to hear positive shutter stories. The ones we're looking at are large wide slats too

I had shutters in a student flat and loved them. They kept the room so warm. If I owned this house I'd get them installed.

Not sure what your window is like but in our old house our living room was also quite small and north facing too so even duller. However we still wanted shutters for privacy (house opened directly into a busy pavement).

We had a tall sash window so we opted for cafe style shutters where the shutter only goes halfway up so no light is blocked from the higher bit of the window. Definitely the right choice, could that be an option for you? I absolutely loved it, I think shutters always make the design of a room so much nicer.

@Housenoob ooh I hadn't considered this! So there's nothing at the top? Does that mean you need curtains too for complete coverage at night?

I replaced curtains in a small lounge with blinds for years. I've just had shutters installed and of the three options, they let in the most light, are the tidiest and seem the least intrusive into the room. They are one of my favourite hole improvements!

*home. I improve my home not my hole!

We had shutters fitted in the sitting room and bedrooms and I love them.
The only downside I can agree with from your list of concerns is that they will block out slightly more light than curtains, as you say most people don’t open them out into the room.
However, they look classic and clean and they won’t restrict the colours you choose if you re-decorate.
As far as dust is concerned, I just wipe mine over every couple of weeks. They are really easy to keep clean. Curtains would trap more dust and would need dry cleaning which is a faff to take them down etc..

I thought about shutters, but a friend has them and sometimes needs them open & has to move stuff off the windowsill which looks untidy and annoying. When they are open they intrude into the room a bit.

I think if you didn't ever need to open them except for maybe cleaning windows that would be better but I don't know if you can guarantee that.

I went for blinds in the end. I do like the look of shutters from outside the house though, there's something really attractive about them.

I have shutters throughout the house. In the living room I can fold them back in the daytime and I do that every day. In the kitchen there isn’t room to fold them back so I just have the slats open. I really don’t like them in the kitchen because just slats open does block my view of the garden.

Upstairs in the bedrooms I could fold them back but don’t bother because we aren’t really in the bedrooms during the day.

So for me, I wouldn’t get shutters that you can’t fold back for a room where you want to enjoy the view.

I probably dust all the shutters maybe once a a month.

This has been so helpful, to hear how you all feel about your shutters. I'm looking to just get the front of the house done so our view of eg the back garden will still be intact. It's the living room I'm mostly worried about for light but it sounds like this will be an issue but not as major a one as I was thinking.

My only other hesitance was that we have Georgian bars and I wondered if the shutters against bars might ruin the look of them a bit

Shamelessly bumping this as decision time is next week!

Why not go for blinds? We love ours and they don’t block the light. I definitely wouldn’t get curtains as they’re too hard to clean.

We had blinds in our last place and I wasn't a fan, mainly of the cleaning. Definitely know I don't want to do blinds again

Blinds are made for your situation, OP. Get thermal ones in a plain colour, you will be surprised how much heat they reflect back into the room. You can also have a pole above the window as the blinds can sit inside the window embrasure. Then you can have sheer curtains , full length but wide enough to draw back from the radiator, looped with holdbacks. They will go across the window in the day for privacy.

That’s what I did in a similar window and it worked really well.

I love our shutters. They are split tilt with a hidden mechanism, so no visible rods. They also have 89mm slats allowing plenty of light.

Following I can’t decide what to replace our window coverings with, change my mind every few days! So I can empathise OP, I would say if your room is small, shutters sound a good idea. Curtains in small rooms can look bulky and take up wall space etc.

We bought a house with shutters.
They are smart but do make the house much darker.
They are also a dust magnet.
I wouldn't personally pay for them having lived with them.

We’ve recently had shutters fitted, had the widest slat, love them. They don’t collect much dust and look really smart. It’s practical in that you can have different sections open, letting in various amounts of light, depending where the sun is, we tend to leave the top section open most of the time.

I'm not a fan if shutters - they block too much light, they're difficult to clean, they make a room feel cold & impersonal & I think they are a trend that will date in time / are becoming dated now.

Curtains add texture & colour to a room, they can be pulled back allowing the light in, they can be changed easily, I don't know where you looked but they are significantly cheaper than shutters. Dunelm have an excellent range.
Roman blinds might be worth considering in some places - most of the advantages of Curtains and look v chic

We were really excited about getting shutters, think they look very smart on houses as you walk past, but after staying in a holiday house with them we totally fell out of love with them. Found them really claustrophobic (we stayed in a small house and also have a small cottage), they made the rooms depressingly dark (we also love houseplants so no good there) and took up all the window ledge space. I do like a window ledge! Love the proper Georgian shutters that fold back against the wall and fit into a wooden window frame but the modern ones don’t function like this. We were ready to pay out £000s and really grateful we got to try before we bought.

Shutters are a trend and like most interior decor trends will soon look dated - like those chintzy ruffled blinds that looked like ladies bloomers everyone had in the 80s.

plus IMHO they are cold, dark and un-cosy

dunelm is good for curtains. You can get beautiful thick timeless fabrics made to measure with thermal lining, floor length, for £500.

We got faux wood blinds put on all windows except the doors into the garden - got shutters installed on those.

That end of the room now looks quite gloomy, even if I fiddle with them to get the best angle for light. I'm glad I didn't get shutters in the rest of the house now.