Lately my wife and I have been looking for a bigger house to keep up with our growing family. The houses that we have seen so far have one thing in common apart from the expensive price tags, they all use interior window shutters for their window treatment. Interior shutter is basically shutters that can be installed on either side of the window but when opens it swings to the inside.

There are basically 2 distinct types of interior window shutters which are the traditional shutter and plantation shutter. The biggest difference between the 2 is that the traditional design uses 1-1/4 inch louver or also known as the horizontal slats and it comes with ¾ inch thick stiles. The plantation design on the other hand has wider louver which is usually around 2 to 4 inches and thinner stiles.

Shutters are generally made out of wood with basswood being one of the favorites due to the superb quality of the hardwood. There are also other alternatives such as faux wood and vinyl or PVC. Faux wood is getting quite popular as it resembles real wood but resistant to moisture damage and termites. Vinyl produces cheaper shutters but they won’t look as good as the wood or faux wood ones. If you can afford it I would strongly recommend using either the hard wood or faux wood material for your shutters as they look nicer and are more durable. Do not be pennies wise and pound foolish. The important thing that you want to bear in mind when shopping for your shutters is only use companies who have the experience to produce shutter panels of different sizes and styles.

Finally is the installation. You can either hire a contractor to do this for you or just do it yourself. In general hiring a professional to do this is expensive as it would normally costs you around USD680 to install a 4 panel shutters. Now if you do this yourself you can purchase the shutters for 360 bucks and save a whopping 40%. It will take a bit of hard work but with proper instructions and perseverance you should be able to complete it in no time. Here is a video that will take though a step by step guide to install your shutters.