Window Shutters

[sjd9264]

Hi

We've just moved into a Georgian house, having never owned a period property before and in need of help! We're keen to have shutters (we've got them in the living room but nowhere else) - does anyone know if it's possible to fit them if there haven't been any before? And are they likely to be costly?

For info, we've got original sash windows in the majority of the house with (wooden) repro versions in a few places.

Any help greatly appreciated - thanks!

 

[FamilyWiggs]

Hello sjd and welcome to the forum.

Try these threads for starters:

http://periodproperty.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=10973&p=135613&hilit=wooden+shutters#p135558

http://www.periodproperty.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=10745&p=129569&hilit=shutter&sid=57b89ca86d7b90eda081c49ee62d54ca#p129569

Robin

 

[JoceAndChris]

Hello and welcome.

Living with shutters is very nice though my personal feeling is that they should be coupled with curtains to soften the look of them in the evening when they're snapped together.

Do you have enough space at the sides- like here ?

I think it will cost you a small fortune to have lots of shutters made - I'll make a semi educated guess at at least £500 per window. You might find it cheaper though.

Coupled with the cost of curtainry this probably makes the window one of the most expensive jobs in the house! I'm lucky that all the windows have shutters here, but if they'd been missing I'd have prioritised curtains over them.

 

[LadyArowana]

Hi

We've just moved into a Georgian house, having never owned a period property before and in need of help! We're keen to have shutters (we've got them in the living room but nowhere else) - does anyone know if it's possible to fit them if there haven't been any before? And are they likely to be costly?

For info, we've got original sash windows in the majority of the house with (wooden) repro versions in a few places.

Any help greatly appreciated - thanks!

Are you sure there never were any? My uneducated guess is that it might be difficult to fit them if the windows were not designed to have them. Mine fold away in the same way that Joce's do. They also have a big metal bar that swings up and engages with something on the opposite side to keep them closed. The ones on the basement level are particularly sturdy and I assume are original. Are there any neighbouring properties that are in original condition that you could have a look at?

 

[Nigel Watts]

You dont need very thick walls to house the shutters because the shutter boxes can be built out fairly flat against the inner wall, but that takes up more wall space.

Personally I would only put shutters on windows where there is strong evidence that there were some there originally. In my street for example, all the houses have shutters at basement and ground floor levels but only some have them at first floor level. Neither my house not that of my mirror image semi-detatched neighbour has first floor shutters and there is no sign of any having been there in the past.

 

[JoceAndChris]

Intetesting posts above, it can be difficult to make the joinery work if there's insufficient space.

These 1930s one don't fold into deep reveals in the same way as my first pics, but are more like Nigel's explanation of shutters for not very deep walls - they sit on the much thinner wall of the 30s extension - but still, it was all designed together, and not imposed at a later date.

 

[GeoffP]

This may be of some interest.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=350120615705&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT#ht_4417wt_894

 

[c r]

Hi

A local experienced joinery firm would be your best bet to have some made up, who would be able to faithfully replicate the suitable moulding style/overall design for your period of home. I don't know about cost, and appreciate for sure that there are other more important things you may have to spend out on having just bought a home, but for items such as shutters that are both an attractive and very functional feature of a room I think it would be well worth prioritising a bit of investment in getting some really nice bespoke ones made up, rather than anything you may be able to obtain ''off the shelf'' so to speak.

On the off chance that you are in London I could PM you with details of a suitable North London joiners if you wish....

 

[Penners]

As you'll have gathered from the above responses, this is one of those "it all depends..." questions.

Broadly, you could probably have shutters made to suit your windows. But the configuration of the existing windows and the surrounding structure will have an effect on the design of the shutters and how they are incorporated into the building.

As with most things, it just depends on how much you're prepared spend.

 

[MatthewC]

We've just moved into a Georgian house...

You don't say if your Georgian house is listed. If it is, you need to check with your Conservation Officer before doing any work like this. I would have thought that it is most unlikely that they would allow you to fit shutters if there were none before.

 

[sjd9264]

Thanks for all your replies everyone, it was all food for thought and I've just found out something else I didn't know about the house! The big window which does have shutter has is exactly as LadyArowana describes, built in with a brass bar. Interestingly, when I looked at the small window next to it, the 'box' (?? - where the weights are!) is plain and doesn't match the other windows in the house. Do you think it's possible that there were shutters here like on the big window that have since been changed? If so, I'm starting to think there may have been shutters downstairs but not upstairs...

The upstairs windows are very much like the picture Joce posted with the cream walls - they look as though they should have shutters but there's no evidence of them ever being there.

As a note, the house isn't listed due to a long history of various changes. However, this also means that all our neighbours' windows are difference, and mostly uPVC. We've been a couple of weeks now and I still keep finding little bits and bobs that make me wonder how things were - if walls could speak!!