There are so many ways you can style and bring luxury to your home, and sometimes window treatments are the last thing you think about. After the fun of choosing colour, furniture and floor coverings, the windows can seem quite boring. There are so many options available however, that will not only enhance the look of your room and home, but also contribute to temperature control and airflow.
Historically, before it was common to have windows glazed (it was an expensive option), shutters were the best way of keeping the elements out - wind, rain, even insects or stray birds. As glazing became more popular, they added a sense of cosiness to rooms with fireplaces, helping to provide an extra layer of weather protection, retaining the heat during cold winters.
It's thought that shutters were originally developed by the ancient Greeks to provide natural light, ventilation and protection for their homes. There is even evidence of shutters being used in the amazingly preserved city of Pompeii.
Just like then, these days you can use shutters in your home to manage light, ventilation and privacy. In current day we have the benefit of louvred shutters, which allows you to control the direction of light and ventilation.
We've used shutters a lot to create privacy but keep light coming into the room. For us they are an ideal solution for windows that look out onto an ugly view, or where homes are built very close together and you need your privacy. By installing shutters, you can add a sense of luxury and hide what's going on outside.
There are a myriad of ways we've used them in our renovations.
Where a room is small, and you don't want sheers curtains to "eat up" any floor space, custom fitted shutters will keep the floor space clean and create the illusion of more space. This is especially beneficial if your room configuration means you need to position your sofa, or other furniture, under or in front of a window. Shutters may be your best option to make it neat and avoid the ugliness of bunched up curtains behind furniture.
For small bedrooms, were you will need both a block-our curtain/blind and some amazing sheer curtains, you can use shutters to save on space and keep the finish clean.
One of our apartments had a wonderful balcony terrace, which was the hero of the room, but all the rooms along one exterior wall looked onto a road and an ugly building, so we used shutters in all the rooms along that wall. By keeping them white and simple we bought in light and drew the eye away from this view to focus on the "hero" of the room - the view to the terrace.
We used floaty full length sheer curtains in white to frame the bifold doors to the terrace, and by mixing textures but matching colours we could have shutters and curtains in the same space.
To maximise storage space, we installed wall hung cabinets under a master bedroom window and we installed custom made louvred shutters above this, again to keep the space clean and allow us to manage light and ventilation.
In bathrooms, they are a great solution for window furnishings. Made especially for wet areas, we used them to bring in light and add privacy. You may recall we installed a full-length window into our master ensuite in our Block House 2021, then used shutters to create privacy and maximise light in the room. It worked amazingly well.
These are just some of the great ways you can use shutters in our home, not just for the appearance, but for their practicality when designing and creating your home.
- See mitchandmark.com or listen to their Reality Reno podcast.
