Plantation shutters - help!

[Invisiblewoman1]

Hi all,

I’ve got a Victorian end of terrace cottage. Just one window up and one down on fhe front elevation - both sashes

I am fairly close to the pavement so I think shutters will give the privacy I need while still letting light in through tilting the slats.

I don’t want full height shutters upstairs as I want to be able to let daylight in and lay in bed enjoying the views. So I was thinking of cafe style shutters upstairs.

If I do cafe downstairs then people knocking on my door can see straight over the top of them.

My question is - would it look odd to have cafe upstairs and full height downstairs?

Shall I just go for large Louvres so I can see the view upstairs still even with full height?

Are shutters dating yet?? Is there a better alternative?

Hi no I do not think that would look odd at all. I live in a conservation area with roads of Victorian houses and lots of my neighbours have shutters and just as you have described, they look lovely. I am at the end of a long expensive renovation and would love them but whilst I save I have applied window film to half height which gives me full privacy but still lets light filter in.

how about splut shutters so that you czn leave half open to let in light and close the top at night for privacy.

I don't think plain white will date soon.

I have shutters, they break sort of a third way. So in the day the top part gets fully opened, I shut them at night.
I have wide slats, they let in light just fine, but my windows are 185m high.
I would do for full height all around and just shut/open as you need it.

@BuddhaAtSea

I have shutters, they break sort of a third way. So in the day the top part gets fully opened, I shut them at night. I have wide slats, they let in light just fine, but my windows are 185m high. I would do for full height all around and just shut/open as you need it.

Same

I should have said mine will be recessed so I won’t be able to open and fold back and leave open… hope that makes sense?

Will you have curtains upstairs too OP? Or else how will you sleep? Sounds expensive to have both.

I would definitely go for privacy film rather than shutters, especially on a Victorian cottage. I can’t imagine how such a modern addition would look right on a period house.

We have shutters. Out house is 1870. They are amazing so much privacy and look stunning. It's perfectly fine to mix old with new if it's done right. And many old houses had screens and panelling so it looks in keeping.

I'm not a fan of shutters at all. The cut out light even when open and don't make it dark when closed. And they are bulky and impossible to keep clean

I'd have proper curtains with a modern (flat panel, not frilly) net curtain for privacy if needed.

@whenwillthemadnessend

We have shutters. Out house is 1870. They are amazing so much privacy and look stunning. It's perfectly fine to mix old with new if it's done right. And many old houses had screens and panelling so it looks in keeping.

I know people like them - you see them everywhere at the moment. And I know you can mix period and modern inside a house. We’ve doing up a 1930s semi and have installed a modern bathroom.

I just personally think that on a cottage, especially a Victorian one, they change the whole look of the house from the outside and that’s why I personally would go for something more discreet.

My last house was 150 years old amd I had half shutters on the ground floor and it looked great. I now live in a victorian terrace and about half the houses have shutters- mine are half on all windows (I never shut them, but I do have roman blinds above to make the look more complete). They look fine, after all they were around in victorian times too.

Why do you prefer shutters over some nice wooden large slatted Venetian blinds? IME blinds let much more light into to the room.

How large are your windows? We were going to have shutters, but when the company come out to measure up, they pointed out that the shutters would block out quite a lot of the light even when open. We ended up with wooden Venetian blinds with wide slats, and in our bedroom we also have floor length curtains to further block out the light.

We considered them for our Victorian terrace but went for white Venetians instead, several houses on our row have them but none have shutters, I prefer the look of the blinds. I also like being able to have them right up when we want full daylight or the windows open and that they don't stick out into the room when they are open.

I had shutters on my last house which was 1930s and I didn’t think they blocked out much light at all tbh. No more than curtains which tend to cover a lot of the window even when open.

But I love my new sash windows so don’t want to cover them up so I’m thinking either cafe shutters or a voile blind and curtains

We have an EOT Victorian house and had shutters fitted to all windows last December. Split across the middle except for the bathroom as the top opening window is smaller which has the split a third of the way down.

We can open/close top and bottom louvres to suit requirements. Angle them to reduce viewing in and allowing light in. And each 'panel' opens for cleaning.

Best thing we have done. We went for the bigger louvres as more in keeping with our big windows (3 bays, couple of double windows. etc) Don't have any issues with blocking light out.

ps. Our shutters have an internal bar unlike the ones with a bar on the outside of the back that you move up or down.