To Louver or not to Louver, that is the question
We received an unexpected freebie recently that is already challenging my weak carpentry "skills." (I hestitate to use the word, "skill" when describing my feeble attempts at this craft.)
For reasons unknown, my husband's company was getting rid of several sets of perfectly good plantation shutters, so he was allowed to have them for free. Several years ago, we paid a handsome price to have plantation shutters crafted and installed for all our downstairs windows except the garage. (That is another story in itself. The price we paid was apparently not sufficient, because we have had repeated louver pin failures.)
We had hoped the shutters would fit our upstairs windows, since there would be just enough to do the windows on the front of the house and our daughter's room over the garage, whose windows also face the street. Alas, they are too tall. However, after some online searching, I discovered that you can feasibly trim up to 2" off the top and up to 1.5" off the bottom of plantation shutters. Even with that, though, we'd still have to install them outside the frame, rather than inside the window frame--which is my preferred method and how the downstairs ones are done.
Still, free plantation shutters will make you do strange things, so I'm now trying to figure out the best way to mount them where they will look nice. I haven't attempted the trimming yet, though we will probably do it on the table saw.
One of my favorite shows on HGTV is Decorating Sense, which has a segment called "trash to treasure." The host shows how a handy person has taken castoffs and garage sale finds and made them into something useful and pretty. A new show has a similar theme, though I haven't seen it. Junkyard Brothers or something like that? Anyway, these two guys pick up trash off the curb, fix it up, then return it to the owners.
That's how I view these shutters. It's not like we're making something different out of them, but we're going to make them fit no matter what! They're just too good, too expensive to waste, and the color matches our other shutters. Who can resist that?
For reasons unknown, my husband's company was getting rid of several sets of perfectly good plantation shutters, so he was allowed to have them for free. Several years ago, we paid a handsome price to have plantation shutters crafted and installed for all our downstairs windows except the garage. (That is another story in itself. The price we paid was apparently not sufficient, because we have had repeated louver pin failures.)
We had hoped the shutters would fit our upstairs windows, since there would be just enough to do the windows on the front of the house and our daughter's room over the garage, whose windows also face the street. Alas, they are too tall. However, after some online searching, I discovered that you can feasibly trim up to 2" off the top and up to 1.5" off the bottom of plantation shutters. Even with that, though, we'd still have to install them outside the frame, rather than inside the window frame--which is my preferred method and how the downstairs ones are done.
Still, free plantation shutters will make you do strange things, so I'm now trying to figure out the best way to mount them where they will look nice. I haven't attempted the trimming yet, though we will probably do it on the table saw.
One of my favorite shows on HGTV is Decorating Sense, which has a segment called "trash to treasure." The host shows how a handy person has taken castoffs and garage sale finds and made them into something useful and pretty. A new show has a similar theme, though I haven't seen it. Junkyard Brothers or something like that? Anyway, these two guys pick up trash off the curb, fix it up, then return it to the owners.
That's how I view these shutters. It's not like we're making something different out of them, but we're going to make them fit no matter what! They're just too good, too expensive to waste, and the color matches our other shutters. Who can resist that?
posted by Tif at 10:15 PM
2 Comments:
You will probably never believe this, but one of my favorite channels now is HGTV! Knowing the way I was in high school, could you ever imagine that I would be a stay at home mom who enjoys watching Home and Garden Television?
I've got lots of things you can help me with when you come down!
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