Window treatments have a dual role, striking a balance between form and function. Aesthetically, they can set a room’s mood, turning bare windows into focal points. Your choice, whether it be a sheer curtain or hardier outdoor blinds, can refine and redefine your space.
In this article, you will learn about two types of window furnishings: roller shutters and plantation shutters.
Roller Shutters
Roller shutters are protective barriers installed in front of windows or doors. They are made from interlinked slats, which roll up and down either manually or through automated systems. While primarily designed for external use, roller shutters can seamlessly blend with various architectural styles, ensuring homes maintain their aesthetic appeal.
Roller shutters are highly functional, protecting against noise, light, heat, and the cold. Constructed out of highly durable steel or aluminium, roller shutters also deter unwanted guests. Through electronic fittings, they can provide wall-to-wall security, hardening a home against being burgled and vandalised.
Types of Roller Shutters
There are many types of roller shutters, including the following:
1. Insulated Roller Shutters
Insulated roller shutters prioritise energy efficiency. Made with an insulative material, they can keep the heat in and the cold out in the winter and keep the cold in and the heat out in the summer.
Depending on the manufacturer, insulated rollers can keep out up to 90% of the sun’s heat. This ensures not only year-round comfort but also significant energy savings.
Insulated roller shutters can also insulate your home against noise.
2. Fire-Rated Roller Shutters
These shutters are specifically designed to protect against fires. Resistant to heat and flames, they can become an essential safety measure, especially in areas prone to bushfires.
If you live in Australia and are in the market for fire-rated window furnishings, look for roller shutters that:
- Have been tested by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO)
- Have an actual bushfire rating (e.g., can withstand a bushfire attack level of 40)
- Have proven heat shielding properties (e.g., up to 40 kilowatts per square metre)
- Are compliant with the Australian Bushfire Construction Standard (i.e., AS3959-2009)
3. Top-Mounted Roller Shutters
Top-mounted roller shutters are integrated above the window, hidden within the wall cavity. This type ensures a seamless façade that enhances the aesthetic of modern homes.
4. Front-Mounted Roller Shutters
The roller shutter box of front-mounted roller shutters is on the window frame. While it may not be as discreet as top-mounted roller shutters, it can still be customised for aesthetic purposes.
Plantation Shutters
Plantation shutters are elegant window treatments comprising horizontal slats (often called louvres) attached to a solid frame. Their design allows the slats to be tilted open or closed, regulating the amount of light and air entering a room. They can be made of various materials, including wood, high-quality engineered polymers (e.g., Insulite) and vinyl.
They offer the following benefits:
- Light control: The adjustable slats allow users to modify the amount of light entering a room, completely blocking or letting in the sunlight.
- Privacy: When closed, they offer complete privacy, blocking the view from outside.
- Insulation: They act as insulators. Depending on the material, they may reduce heating and cooling costs by up to 35%.
- Durability: Plantation shutters made of Insulite, a premium dense polymer that looks like wood but protects like plastic, can resist common issues like warping and cracking.
- Fire safety: Some dense-polymer shutters are highly fire-retardant, requiring three times more heat to ignite than wood or vinyl shutters.
- Aesthetic appeal: Plantation shutters can enhance a room’s appearance, offering a classic, timeless look.
- Easy maintenance: Cleaning is straightforward—typically requiring just wiping the slats, frames, and other components with a damp cloth.
You can install plantation shutters in living rooms, bedrooms, home offices, and even bathrooms and kitchens. When installing ones in high-humidity areas like bathrooms and kitchens, opt for moisture-resistant engineered polymer plantation shutters.
Types of Plantation Shutters
There are many types of plantation shutters, including the following:
1. Full-Height Shutters
Full-height shutters are tall and cover the entire height of the window, providing maximum privacy and light control. They often come with an optional divider rail for the independent movement of the upper and lower slats.
2. Café-Style Shutters
Inspired by Parisian cafés, café-style shutters cover only the bottom half of the window, granting privacy while allowing abundant natural light from the top half.
3. Tier-on-Tier Shutters
Also known as double-hung shutters, tier-on-tier types look like full-height shutters, but they’re composed of multiple tiers. The top and bottom sections operate independently, offering versatile light and privacy control options.
Plantation Shutter Customisation Options
Plantation shutters offer many customisation options.
1. Tilt Rods
Choose between traditional central tilt rods or hidden tilt rods. The latter provides a sleeker appearance.
2. Slat Sizes
Personalise your window’s look with narrower or wider slats.
3. Shutter Frames
Opt for inside-mounted frames (fitting inside the window recess) or outside-mounted frames (attached to the outside of the wall).
4. Hinges
Hinges are available in various styles and colours, and you can choose hinges that blend with your shutters or stand out against them.
5. Mid-Rails
Mid-rails are an optional feature. Running vertically across the horizontal slats, they reinforce the shutters’ strength and allow the top and bottom sections of particularly tall shutters to open and close independently.
Roller or Plantation Shutters?
Which should you choose between roller shutters and plantation shutters?
Roller shutters provide the greatest protection against light, heat, the cold, noise, fire, and intrusion. They can give you the best energy savings. Therefore, roller shutters are ideal if insulation and security are your priority.
Plantation shutters give you granular control over the amount of natural light entering a space. They also have more customisation options than roller shutters. If light control and aesthetic appeal are your primary considerations, opt for plantation shutters.