Plantation Shutters?

[The_Princess's_Mommy]

Has anyone installed plantation shutters on their interior windows? Did you DIY or did you have a pro? We are looking to add plantation shutters to our 6 living room windows and are not sure where to start.

Where did you order them? How was your experience?

Any recommendations are appreciated!

[bas71873]

We've had plantation shutters in our last 3 homes. Always bought them at Home Depot (mine are the faux white wood mind you) and we've installed twice ourselves, but this last time, HD was offereing free install with the purchase of at least 4 blinds and since we needed 23 blinds for 23 windows, it was a bargain. Heck, even the $150 usual installation fee would have been worth paying. BTW - I prefer the looks of HD's faux blinds over Lowe's.

Install is not hard, but it's time consuming and DH's back was always killing him by the time he finished. The hardest part of the whole thing was taking out the extra "slats" from the bottom and "restringing" the pully thingy (for lack of better terms).

When we decided to have HD install the ones we have now (this was June 2009), I just went into the store and picked out the style of blind I wanted, paid the $35/40 fee and they sent a subcontractor out to take all the measurements for my windows. Once she submitted those to HD, they pulled all the sizes I needed, I went to the store and paid for them and then anther sub (which happened to be the husband and son of the lady who measured) came out and installed them. They had all 23 windows done in under 2 hours. Well worth having someone else do them and we haven't had issues with any of them.

[ExPirateShopGirl]

I had plantation shutters installed in my last home. I ordered them from a company online and they sent a rep to measure and another to install once they arrived. I had the frames built outside the sills. They were an absolute investment and a great selling point when the house went on the market. I couldn't have imagined doing them myself. I think the previous poster has plantation style blinds and not actual shutters, FYI.

[bdcp]

We had ours custom made and installed 9 years ago in our sunroom and two bathrooms. Not cheap, but I love them and they actually add value. We actually used a local design business for all our window treatments and area rugs.

[wiigirl]

We had ours custom made by a handyman....cheaper, beautiful but still a bit pricey.

[bas71873]

Originally Posted by ExPirateShopGirl

I had plantation shutters installed in my last home. I ordered them from a company online and they sent a rep to measure and another to install once they arrived. I had the frames built outside the sills. They were an absolute investment and a great selling point when the house went on the market. I couldn't have imagined doing them myself. I think the previous poster has plantation style blinds and not actual shutters, FYI.

Oops. You are right. I do have blinds NOT shutters. Sorry!

[esk]

We used a window treatment store and yes, they are pricey. They installed them outside the window frames and they look very nice. We went with white because our trim and doors are white.

[The_Princess's_Mommy]

Thank you everyone - sounds like everyone really likes their decision to get them. I have to consider it an investment in my home, rather than very expensive window treatments!

[roobug]

We have them at our house and loved them until we had kids. The kids have broken many of the slates and its hard to shut them. Plus any young kids that come to the house seem drawn to play with them.

So if you have young kids you may want to wait.

[gracie1]

Originally Posted by The_Princess's_Mommy

Has anyone installed plantation shutters on their interior windows? Did you DIY or did you have a pro? We are looking to add plantation shutters to our 6 living room windows and are not sure where to start.

Where did you order them? How was your experience?

Any recommendations are appreciated!

I went to lowes and had the custom made graber shutters installed in my house. They are expensive but I am so happy that I invested the money! It makes the house look great! Sometimes graber will run specials with 10% off or 20%. They send the graber installer out to measure and it takes 4-6 weeks for them to be installed.