Do you have shutters? If so, do you ever fold them back?

[sergeantmajor]

We're getting shutters fitted in our front room. To make a long story short, we have to choose between an option which works best when the shutters are drawn across, or an option that works best when folded back.

The company says that people hardly ever fold shutters back. If you've got them, is that your experience? Do you tend to keep them closed (slats open or not), or folded back?

Thanks!

Never.

What is the option that works best when folded back?! What's the point of them?

lamagreyhound... just like curtains really, sometimes you want them open for max light, other times closed for privacy, that's what I've been thinking

We hardly ever have ours folded back. If you're worried about maximum light, there are multiple ways you can increase the natural light coming into your home. If you need advice, I saw a good article about it that I can send you. But otherwise, my general answer is no. But then I have two small boys so it would be a pain having them kept open as their grubby fingers would make the glass dirty! haha

I don't. The guy fitting them said no one ever does and I didn't believe him. Although I do open them very occasionally to get behind to clear out all the dead flies or to open a window.

We hardly ever fold them back, our window is very close to the pavement though and everyone would see right in! We do open the slats though for light.

Eh? I fold shutters back every morning and close them every night - they’re like curtains surely? In fact I don’t shut the downstairs ones ever because no need to shut out light.

Why would you keep them closed all the time? The mind boggles.

Ah I see - our shuttters are solid wood - doh.

I have them in my bedroom, I shut them every night and fold them open every day. Just like curtains.

I love them by the way, expensive but some of the best money I spent for an awkward window.

I also open the slats in the summer, directs the light so it doesn't shine in my eyes!

Yes. On some windows they are halved so I keep the lower ones closed (with slats open) and the top ones folded back. On smaller windows upstairs sometimes I open them fully (if the sun is shining usually) and sometimes I just open the slats. I think you should have the option to open them easily. If only to clean your windows!

Never fold back the ones with slats except to clean the windows as it involves moving furniture. Though the remove more light than I ever thought they would so it'd be nice if it was an option. We have solid shutters in the bedrooms and they get opened every day obviously.

Always open am close pm

Yes I open mine when I feel the room is dark, it is much lighter with them open.

Sorry by ‘open’ I mean folded back!

We have tier on tier shutters. We leave the bottom half closed (with slots open for light) and fold back the top half each morning. We ended up ordering online and fitting them ourselves but when we were first researching we had someone round to measure up and he tried to talk us out of tier on tier as "you'll never open them anyway". He was wrong and we're really glad we went with out instinct.

*slats not slots!

I only ever open mine to open or clean the window. I went for the looks better shut option and don’t regret it.

FlameCrestedTanager can I ask if you went for the bifolding doors with your tier on tier shutters?

Literally never. Just tilted to let the light in.

I have solid ones in a bedroom and open them every day.

starmix1 - yes we did, it depends on the width of your windows whether it works though.

Ours were for privacy, so no, never open. Just for cleaning etc. So we went for the option of looking better in situ.