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I'm having a guy come out to my recently purchased home tomorrow to provide an estimate for various window and sliding glass door coverings. In preparation, I'd love to get advice on the following:
1) For the windows on my previous home, I had plantation/louvered shutters for my front-facing windows, and really enjoyed them. In Phoenix, they seemed to really keep out the worst of the heat in the summer (now I'm in Colorado Springs, not sure if they'd help insulate against cold, too?). But am wondering- are they still considered in-style? Mine is any older house (60's) in an established/mature neighborhood. I like a more traditional look, but don't want to spend the money unless it's still considered sort of a nice touch.
2) All of the windows in the house have the original wood frames...as a matter of design, does this mean I should go with wood-color shutters? Or does it matter whether I go with wood vs. white? Does the wood color have to match the same color I've got for the window frames? Am I overthinking this? Hahaha
3) I've got sliding glass doors going out to my backyard patio...are vertical blinds still the way to go with these? I haven't lived in a house with sliding-glass doors for a while so not sure what people use nowadays and what's considered stylish.
If you think plantation shutters are in keeping with the style of your house, and you like them, they’ll be very nice. Let your house dictate what it wants, not trends.
Same with the shutters. I think you can disregard the stained frame and have whatever color shutters you darn please.
I detest vertical blinds and would never have them in my house. I use a nice beefy rod and curtain panels on rings on my patio door. I think drapes are an important softening element in a room and a way to introduce more color and pattern into a room.
If you think plantation shutters are in keeping with the style of your house, and you like them, they’ll be very nice. Let your house dictate what it wants, not trends.
Same with the shutters. I think you can disregard the stained frame and have whatever color shutters you darn please.
I detest vertical blinds and would never have them in my house. I use a nice beefy rod and curtain panels on rings on my patio door. I think drapes are an important softening element in a room and a way to introduce more color and pattern into a room.
Agree 100%. I have a traverse rod that virtually disappears into the woodwork as it is the same height as molding and I have a curtain panel on it. Most of the time it is open but in the winter I do close it over.
I've got plantation shutters in my home (Kansas City area), installed over the last couple of years as I've replaced windows. Expensive as heck but I LOVE them and I have no idea if they're in style. I don't care. I installed them to reduce the sun load but I notice when I open the louvers in the morning in the winter I get a little rush of cold air so they may have some insulation value in the winter as well. Mine are white, but so are the window frames.
Mark me down as anti vertical blinds. I detest them.
If you go with plantation shutters, you can have sliding panels to cover the slider. Either a bi-pass style, where one panel slides nehind the other, or a bi-fold door style.
I don't think Plantation shutters are out of style. I see them in some of the new homes. Its a matter of cost..so normally you will see blinds. Plantation shutters are a huge upgrade cost. I would match the wood, it would be in keeping with they style of your home, or I would use a lighter wood for the plantation shutter . But I would keep it a wood color not white. The lighter would would just accent the window frames.
Thanks, all for the comments- I'm happy to hear that the Plantation Shutters are still considered stylish- I loved the ones I had...we'll see how the price works out for them.
As for the sliding glass doors, I'm also pleased to hear that I've got other options apart from verticals...curtains would be a nice touch and it's something my mom and I would have fun shopping around for when she visits me this summer! However, I'm thinking that I might need some sort of insulation for the sliding glass doors because I can feel a little draft coming through where the two doors meet- not sure there's any kind of shade/blind that would fix that...but I can just imagine all the cold air coming in from there during the winter.
When I moved to Southern CA from the East coast in 1999, I noticed soooo many homes with plantation shutters. I was like, when did they become the rage? Then I realized I was in a warm climate, so plantation shutters made sense. Now I'm in FL and they're all over the place here too, and of course it makes sense they'd be in AZ as well. I put them on a big bay window in my bedroom when I moved back to PA, I just loved the look, whether or not it matched the style of the house. I can't really see that they'll ever be out of style.
I don't know if they'll look "in place" in a cold-weather place like Colorado. Also, I don't think I'd like the look of dark-colored shutters from outside the house.
Vertical blinds, however, are very dated. I always thought they were a great solution for sliders, especially in kitchens where drapes weren't practical.
Curious to hear what you decide. I am in the northeast and have never had plantation shutters (really due to the price) but I think they are gorgeous and timeless. I do wonder if they make less sense other than being gorgeous- in a non-hot climate.
I prefer blinds and in my last house put in the faux wood 2 inch white ones. I loved them.
In our new to us house, they had the honeycomb shades which I know are a nice feature, but I actually prefer blinds . I like to be able to have privacy and protection from sun but be able to see out at times. (tilting the blinds does that - one has to raise and lower the shades so it's an either or). I will be changing over to the blinds in our new house. One thing I did notice was that we went with the off the shelf HD Lowes variety and they were totally fine.
For sliders, I have and have had the vertical blinds which really are the most functional, but I too detest them. In our walk out basement, when we replaced the doors the blinds no longer fit, so I did get grommet panels to hang (as they slide easily) on a rod and they work great and I much prefer them to the vertical blinds.
We also have slider in our kitchen, and I do plan to replace the vertical blinds with curtain panels as well. For some reason the vertical blinds blend in so much with the wall that I barely notice them to get annoyed with them.
For your curtains over the sliding doors that have drafts, get insulated curtains. They make a huge difference.
You can get them from JC Penney, Amazon, Target, Walmart, etc. Just search for insulated curtains or thermal curtains on Google and you'll see a lot of options.
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