Shutters - update

[MattW]

Back in November I was asking people on advice on who to use to make replacement internal shutters - thank you for everyone gave me advice.
http://www.periodproperty.co.uk/for...&sid=57b89ca86d7b90eda081c49ee62d54ca#p129569

I thought people might be interested in seeing the work in progress. The ground floor shutters are now done and just need painting:
View attachment 1
View attachment 2

The ground floor ones are copies of someone three doors to the left of me, the first floor ones from the person to the right of me.

 

[MattW]

The first floor ones are being finished at the moment, and should be done in the next week or two:
View attachment 1

 

[JoceAndChris]

Lovely, beautiful work - how enormously satsifying for you! The design of them is identical to some original ones here. They look fantastic up against all the other mouldings too. That arched top window is stunning too.

Thanks for updating. Have you decided on your colour schemes yet?

 

[MattW]

Thanks for the comment Joce - am really pleased with the quality of workman ship

Have you decided on your colour schemes yet?

Yes - the first floor drawing room is going to be creamy yellow (we did an initial coat of something more yellow that you can see on the walls in the pics, but it is too lemon fresh when seen over a whole room). The room with the arched window on the ground floor will be my study - it's going to be lined with bookcases. The main colour of the walls and the fronts of the bookcases will be a really dark green, but the interior of the bookcases will be a much lighter tone of the same green to lighten the effect. The end wall opposite the window is almost entirely made up folding doors into the next room - these will be white (as will the shutters and the door).

As an aside, the shutters split at different heights for privacy on the two floors, as the angle of view from the street is different.

 

[JoceAndChris]

Oh, it all sounds fab. Yellow against white is a beautiful, fresh combination, and so perfect for the period - have you seen the yellow drawing room at Sir John Soanes' museum?

Love the sound of the green bookcases in the study too, lucky, lucky you! Please post lots of pics.

 

[Moo]

Oh, Matt. I'm so very envious.
Once upon a time our house had shutters on the first floor, just like yours, until some greedy property developers bought a slice of our building so that they could put up something grandiose next door. And the owners of our house actually let them cut it so fine that on one side of the window there isn't even room for the architrave - it has to sit on the party wall, at right angles to the window. So there's no chance of lovely shutters like yours.
Of course, we've learned to live with it, until some sadist goes and posts a picture of what ours could have been like...

 

[Nigel Watts]

Very nice job. The mdf isnt quite authentic perhaps, but if it had existed than I an sure that is what they would have used!

 

[Penners]

They look great, Matt. Did you make them yourself?

I don't know whether you've decided on how they will latch yet, but the shutters in my parents' Georgian house in Leamington Spa were secured with a bar right across the full inside width of them.

Like these ones: http://images.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://www.rivelinglenproducts.co.uk/acatalog/VictshutterSB730.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.rivelinglenproducts.co.uk/acatalog/Window_Shutter_Bar.html&usg=__DuaFiHL9X5oMfavSG-QBlQic8Rs=&h=200&w=300&sz=72&hl=en&start=2&tbnid=FuwBjSPxUbRkJM:&tbnh=77&tbnw=116&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dshutter%2Bbar%26gbv%3D2%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Doff%26sa%3DG

 

[MattW]

have you seen the yellow drawing room at Sir John Soanes' museum?

Yes - its an amazing colour, but a bit too acid yellow for my taste, and fairly unforgiving on other things in the room if they aren't perfect matches I would guess.

The mdf isnt quite authentic perhaps, but if it had existed than I an sure that is what they would have used!

That was my thinking. The joiners offered to make them out of pine board, but they pointed out that getting good seasoned timber that definitely won't warp over time as humidity changes is v.challenging. Ultimately I wanted them to definitely fold back into their boxes without problems, so persuaded myself that the Georgians were masters at jerry building / making cheap materials look expensive and so it was in the spirit :wink:

I don't know whether you've decided on how they will latch yet

If you look on the pics when the shutters are closed you can see small catches about 115mm long - these are Edina catches from inbrass.co.uk. I was going to use long bars (you can still get them from inbrass - see below) but it meant that on the ground floor upper shutters the bar would have to be over 2.5m off the ground so that when the bar hung down when the shutters were open it wouldn't catch on the shutters below. Originally split shutters like these would have had a bar on the lower shutter that had a curved bulge in the middle so that it would cover the bottom of the upper shutters also (my neighbours have these), but unfortunately I couldn't find them and was feeling too skint having paid a load for the shutters to have special bars made.

 

[JoceAndChris]

Wise choices all round. Our wooden shutters are warped or swollen and no longer fit their boxes, and the iron bars are perfect for clonking, bruising and chopping your fingers when you do them up.

I would not have known they were MDF if that observant Nigel hadn't pointed it out!

 

[Nigel Watts]

I made a pair of shutters for my drawing room out of solid wood, including the panels. By the time they were finished the panels had shrunk and the leaves had twisted giving some unintended additional authenticity and simulation of age.

 

[JoceAndChris]

"As an aside, the shutters split at different heights for privacy on the two floors, as the angle of view from the street is different."

You'll enjoy unwrapping that view every morning Matt.

I must say the ritual of the shutters in the mornings and evenings is one of my favourite. 28 panels to be unlatched and folded back here in 6 rooms (and more to come!); there's a drama to that that can't be matched by curtains. Especially in the summer, when puss runs round the house anticipating my round to press his great big furry face against the glass on the outside sills.

They're so warm as well, on really cold days I don't undo them all.

Why on earth did they fall out of fashion?

 

[Penners]

Why on earth did they fall out of fashion?

Why indeed? As you observe, they're good for heat and sound insulation, and for security.

I suspect that their demise was purely due to cost. As Matt will have discovered, the cost of a full set of shutters for your house, plus panelling in the stowage recesses, plus their furniture, would probably buy you a substantial part of a tacky estate house.

 

[JoceAndChris]

:lol: I'm sure you're right. And having watched my poor dad struggle rebuilding and refitting new sections to ours, planing and re-planing to get them to align and fold up, it's not a DIY job I'd inflict on anyone!

 

[Nigel Watts]

And having watched my poor dad struggle rebuilding and refitting new sections to ours, planing and re-planing to get them to align and fold up, it's not a DIY job I'd inflict on anyone!

I made my pair of shutters almost entirely by hand. The mouldings were non-standard so I made a scratch stock - a pair of L-shaped pieces of wood screwed together which hold a thin piece of steel filed to the reverse profile, which is then worked back and forth to form the moulding - and I used an antique wooden beading plane for the beads on the backs of the panels.

On balance I would say this was harder work and at least as tedious as making my current set of curtains.

 

[MattW]

As Matt will have discovered, the cost of a full set of shutters for your house, plus panelling in the stowage recesses, plus their furniture, would probably buy you a substantial part of a tacky estate house.

Can definitely agree with that - I really underestimated the cost of having them made when I put my budget together for the house and had to think long and hard about whether I could justify having them when i got the final quotes back. Financially frankly I think you can't make any case for putting them back, but aesthetically, it seemed a bit of a no brainer so bit the bullet after a lot of heartache.

 

[JohnB]

The Welsh weren't that fussy around the 17th century. This would be very cheap to make :wink:

 

[Moo]

Financially frankly I think you can't make any case for putting them back,

Of course you can. It's a no-brainer.
Brilliant thermal efficiency will reduce heating bills, your house will now be uber-secure, and just think how much you'll have saved by not buying all those huge curtains.

 

[Nigel Watts]

just think how much you'll have saved by not buying all those huge curtains

Surely Matt's splendid Regency rooms deserve both shutters and curtains, and the more lavish the better!

 

[Wren]

Dear Matt

Thank you for posting these pictures. They are inspirational (planning to try making a set myself one day).

Wren