Ever Wondered How Shutters Are Made, What Their Parts Are? Look No Further
We’ve been kindly lent the images from a company explaining shaped shutters We’ve used these illustrations to try and clarify how shutters are made and put together in a bid to demonstrate their inherent durability and strength. Wooden shutters are made from hard woods so are inherently strong and retain some degree of flexibility. They are relatively moisture resistant, so will adjust to the ambient humidity in your home, regardless of summer or winter conditions.
The plantation inside shutter is made of essentially two main parts, the shutter frame which is fixed to the window frame or wall, and the panels which fit inside the frame. This frame is screwed to the wall and the panels are fixed to the frame, either by hinges if they can swing open, or by screwing them directly to the frame, like a window frame.
The fames themselves are mitered and connected together with bow tie fixings, making them strong and safe.
There are essentially two kind of mounts for getting the shutter frame to the wall, either inside or outside. Which mount is used depends on the application, if you have a recessed window you will probably be using inside mount, and if you have a flush window generally an outside mounted frame. Inside mounted shutters will then be either tight to the frame or further away, depending on the window opening and design of shutters you are after. The type of window frame you have plays a part but essentially you can fix shutters to most frames. read more about window frame types here. We don't really go into installation guides because we install ourselves but you can read more about how to install here.
If you are limited by space for opening your window shutters, you might choose to have them fixed to the frame and only open by tilting the slats, if however you have plenty of room, and want to open the shutters wide open you could opt for hinged shutters.
Shutter Parts
Shutters are made of varying parts depening on the design and size of the shutters. On the whole you will have these standard parts for your shutters:
Top rail (a solid piece of wood making up part of the frame)
The frame itself (see above)
A midrail (This is either a design feature, providing a solid piece of wood similar to the top rail, or an essential part of the shutter if it is of a certain height for stability)
Stiles - these are the side rails of the shutter panels, and make up the edges in wooden pieces.
A bottom rail, same as top and mid, but on the bottom!
Variations depend on whether there is a shutter rod to open and close the louvers (louvers are slats which make up the panels), whether the rod is at the front or rear of the shutter, and holes for the rods.
Manufacturing these shutters depends on where you source them. The parts we obtain are hand made, timber from plantations is cut down to size, slatted in individual parts, then mitered together for strength and design. The finish of shutters can vary a lot so read up about that on the design page.