A popular form of shutters, that is no long limited to homes in the Southern US, is plantation shutters. These shutters have been a long time favourite in the US, but they are now gaining in popularity in other parts of the world, particularly the UK and also in the warmer parts of Australia as well.
Part of their rise in popularity is of course due to the ease with which people from all over the world can check out shutter styles on line. This makes styles that were once peculiar to a certain region or country suddenly becoming in vogue worldwide. But that’s not the only reason that plantation shutters are popular.
They offer many benefits to homeowners. First of all, the type of plantation shutters I am talking about are the interior shutters, usually made from either wood or faux wood, or occasionally from a harder plastic. Traditionally, though, I think that plantation shutters should be at least wood or composite wood in order for them to look realistic.
Plantation shutters these days are made up of individual shutters that are sent into panels that are usually one to one and a half feet high. While originally used to shelter homeowners from hurricanes and other weather conditions, or to protect a house from being looted and robbed by passersby by adding additional security to their oftentimes isolated homesteads, now days they are mainly used to add to a home or rooms décor.
There is not really much value in installing faux-wood plantation shutters over real hardwood shutters, aside from the fact that faux wood shutters generally are quite a bit cheaper than traditional wood shutters. They are also usually quite a bit heavier, which is something you may want to take into consideration if you are planning on hanging them over large windowed areas. Wood shutters are easier to manage, to open and close, due to the fact that the real wood shutters are usually lighter weight-wise.
Faux wood plantation shutters are a bit easier to care for. They don’t fade in the sun as much (although some finishes used on faux-wood shutters can yellow if exposed to bright sunlight) and they don’t warp when exposed to dampness or humidity as much as wood shutters do.
Few people are able to tell the difference, from a distance at least, between real wood and faux wood shutters, and in general the faux wood shutters look just as nice in a home as the real wood shutters. Deciding on what type of plantation shutters to buy will really depend on your deciding first of all what you can afford, and secondly on what is of the most importance to you — their weight, whether you live in a humid climate, etc.
On a final note , if you do live in an area that is exposed to very bright sunlight, and you are planning on opting for wood plantation shutters, you may want to consider purchasing light colored wood shutters as these show a lot less fading from being exposed to the sun. Thus, they will last longer without needing to be re-finished.