When I was first pinning for the farm I was looking for ideas on how to make it feel interesting architecturally but in a classic/casual way. It’s a lot harder than you think. While we are gut-renovating this baby and yes many things will technically be new, we don’t want it to feel “new” by any stretch of the means. We need design elements that will give it the quirk and charm it honestly lacked in the first place. I found some photos of interior shutters and fell in LOVE with the idea. They bring in so much warmth and interest in a way that feels really solid, grounded totally classic, and yet unexpected. See for yourself.
You would think that a flat panel would be boring, but when they are hinged like that (and again, fit the window) with exposed hinges – I think they can look so simple and pretty.
There is certainly a romance to them – perhaps because it feels more like a European design element.
I LOVE this green one, especially for the deeper jamb which we considered but realized that it would obscure the view/light even more so we opted out. I also love how that one is asymmetrical with two small panels on the right and just one on the left.
I’ve also considered doing it just on the bottom panes of the windows in our main bathroom – not to the top. The one above I’m assuming is folded back on itself or it wouldn’t close all the way which is a huge NO NO.
They don’t have to be too fussy – I love the simpler vertical grooves of the above photo.
I LOVE how modern and fresh the above shutters feel – it’s not just for older homes. Also how great is the vertical paneling on vertical paneling?? It’s so simple but looks so chic. The contrasting colors don’t hurt either:)
I think what most people think of interiors shutters it might conjure up ’80s interiors, not dissimilar to the one above, but if it’s high quality and they are installed to actually fit the windows then I just think they are awesome. But I might love that shot more for the styling and generally prefer non-slatted.
SO good. That fabric would still let some light through and it certainly adds a lot of texture and softness. So cozy.
I wouldn’t have thought to put them on doors, and definitely not on arched doors – but it really works and actually is a great window treatment solution for arched windows. The simple warm wood is stunning and likely where we would lean. The options seem kinda endless.
So in February when we were up there I was so happy to find 8 matching antique shutters at Aurora Mills. We thought they would be perfect for our bedroom.
Boom. Done. Or so we thought. They were 16″ wide by 60″. We plugged them into the rendering to see if they would work.
We weren’t sold (also the room has totally changed from this rendering, FYI). Now I know that these renderings don’t show texture/age but it wasn’t feeling nearly as good to us.
Then we did a deep dive on interior shutters to better understand how to use them – what are the rules and things to think about?
- Shutters need to, HAVE TO, fit the windows when they are closed even if you never close them. Too small shutters on large windows is a thing and it’s not a good thing. You can slightly cheat it so you visually can’t tell that the size is off, but not too much. So it meant that if we used those shutters our windows would be fairly narrow – not the worst thing ever, but we had to ask ourselves if having shutters was worth having smaller windows than we wanted.
- Often they are installed inside the jamb (see photo above). That means that you might need a deeper jamb.
- They do block ALL of the light, but there will be a light leak at top/bottom. So this made us think we’d want shades or curtains in ADDITION to the shutters. Harsh light leaks affect sleep more than filtered ambient light through fabric.
- They aren’t exactly super easy to open and close – so they might be best for the rooms that you can leave open. I worried that it would become this cumbersome job (to be fair we are now very used to motorized shades on a remote that all go up and down at the push of a button). Having shades in addition to the shutters I think would take away from the charm and might look a little dumb.
- The shutters that we found I think were more exterior shutters – In all the photos above, the shutters folded back on themselves, doubled up when open – I think I prefer that look if we were to do any.
- If you don’t do them inside the deeper jamb you can outside mount them but it does affect your window casing – it can totally work but it’s something to consider with the architectural style of your home.
- Custom/new shutters aren’t cheap to fabricate. However, looking at some of these that are simpler I’m thinking that if you are into them you can certainly DIY them.
Right now we are not doing these particular shutters because we didn’t want the shutters to dictate the size and location of the windows. As you know, natural light is annoyingly important to us and we found that these shutters were making our windows smaller than we wanted and we couldn’t have as many as we wanted because when they were open they would hit each other.
Now we still MIGHT try to bring in some custom shutters somewhere (maybe just on the exterior?) but designing the room with those particular shutters was feeling like we were being held hostage by this design element that maybe wasn’t THAT appropriate for a farmhouse anyway. But when I look at these inspiration images I want them SO BAD. We might be able to bring them into the upstairs bedrooms where the windows aren’t too close, or maybe have them on one side of a window downstairs, but ultimately I think that we chose bigger and more windows over those shutters.
How do you feel about interior shutters? I’m sad that it might not happen, but I promised myself that I will SOMEWHERE, someday 
Just might not be this farmhouse.
Opening Image Credits: Design by Special Umbria | Photo by Kristian Septimius Krogh
The post An Old World Design Element I’m Obsessed With And Tried HARD To Bring Into The Farmhouse (Hint: Interior Shutters) appeared first on Emily Henderson.
from Emily Henderson https://stylebyemilyhenderson.com/blog/an-old-world-design-element-im-obsessed-with-and-tried-hard-to-bring-into-the-farmhouse
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