It’s true that I have a problem with fake shutters. If you follow my instagram page you’ll see a healthy spattering of shutter fails. They give me a little bit of rage that no other architectural element does (I’ve written about the other design flaws that drive me nuts here). The purpose of this post isn’t just to vent (though it will be therapeutic for me!), but rather to explain why something as insignificant as a fake shutter flies in the face of almost every rule of design.
My hope is that more people will see the mistake that fake shutters are and it will prevent even just one more house from giving its windows a black eye and making me that much crazier. Beware that once you read this post, you will likely be cursed like me in noticing the world of fake shutters on buildings everywhere. It will be like when the lights come on at the bar at closing time and you realize exactly what that person you’ve been dancing with all night really looks like. Be frightened!
Why Fake Shutters?
Why do they exist? I guess because real shutters look so great that a lot of other people wanted to jump on the shutter band wagon but couldn’t afford real shutters. If your shutters don’t operate, you won’t realize just how bad they really are.
You see, real shutters…shut. It’s that simple. If your shutters don’t shut, they are fake. Shutters were designed to cover your window for a multitude of reasons. They protect against storms or other inclement weather. The provide relief from the hot summer sun and cold winter winds. They keep rain, hail, sleet and snow off your windows, and extend their life. They can provide privacy or help to darken a room for sleep. Shutters are immensely practical and useful.
But when you take a randomly sized piece of plastic and screw it to the siding next to your window and call it a shutter, you are fooling yourself and a few others, but no one who reads this blog anymore. In the title of this post I promised you the reasons why they get my goad, so I might as well dig into the details.
Reason #1 They Don’t Fit
This is the most obvious and makes it easy to spot for just about everyone. If your window is 6 feet wide and your shutter is only a foot wide, who do you think you are fooling? You may not think it’s a big deal, but proportions matter. Putting undersized fake shutters on your house is like driving a big rig with 18 donut spare tires. It’s awkward and ineffective.
Real shutters are designed to be exactly half of the window dimension so that when you close both sides they cover the window precisely. Too small and they leave the window unprotected, too large and they won’t close. If you are going to get fake shutters then at least make it hard enough that my kindergartener can’t tell.
Reason #2 The Slats Are Wrong
This one is a little harder to see when flying by in the car but walking the neighborhood it’s abundantly clear. Here’s the deal: the louvers on shutters are designed to shed water…when closed. When they are open the louvres would be angled so that they are channeling water back onto the siding instead of down and away from the building like on fake shutters.
I can only assume that the genius designers of fake shutters did this because fake shutters only have one position they can be in and that is open. You’d think that before they designed their fake shutter they would have looked at how real shutters were, but apparently that was too much to ask.
Reason #3 Wrong Design
Not every house style was intended to have shutters on it and certain house styles have shutter designs that are distinct to them. Shutters with pictures cut into a top panel were usually for Colonial and Colonial Revival houses. Board and batten shutters fit well on Mission and Spanish style homes, plantation shutters belong on southern plantation homes. When you take any random shutter design and put it on a house at random, you’re playing shutter roulette.
Just like kids need Garanimals to help them pick clothes that match, adults need a similar system for shutters on their houses. If you don’t know what style belongs on your house, then ask someone who does like.
Reason #4 Wrong Place
Not every window fits the same kind of shutter, and not every window was designed to accommodate a shutter. Just because you want a shutter on that window, doesn’t mean you should have one. Every shutter gets a window, but not every window gets a shutter. I should make that into a T-shirt.
Shutter-pocalypse
Now that you know, start looking around your neighborhood. Are they too small? Too big? Are they permanently fixed to the building or worse yet, a part of the actual building themselves? Are they upside down, the wrong size, the wrong style? So many questions and so many fake shutters that it’s like a shutter-pocaplypse outside.
It may seem ugly out there, but now that you are aware of shutters you can truly appreciate a beautiful pair of historic shutters. A pair of real shutters added to the right window adds so much charm to a window it’s unreal. And I guess that beauty is what the fakers tried to duplicate. The truth is, nothing compares to the real deal, but you already knew that didn’t you?
And I went even further by making you guys a fun video! Check it out below for some great “advice” about vinyl shutters.
Founder & Editor-in-Chief
I love old houses, working with my hands, and teaching others the excitment of doing it yourself! Everything is teachable if you only give it the chance.
Thank you!! I drive around every neighborhood saying this!!
I have been looking for a home in Raleigh NC for several years. I see so many of these windows with undersized fake shutters on them. The BUILDERS put on these fake shutters and people accept them. I think the BUILDERS should be educated that you don’t slap a shutter up of random size just to add a pop of color to the front of a house. It ends up looking ridiculous. I think of the windows in a house as the EYES of the house and the shutters as the EYEBROWS. They frame the windows. They need to look like they could close over the window and cover the entire window. You wouldn’t want half an eyebrow over your eye. I would say that in Raleigh at least 70% of the houses have shutters that are either nailed or glued to the house – or are the wrong size for the windows. It is painful to look at as I am driving around trying to find a house that I would want to buy. Real shutters are not inexpensive, I know. But honestly I’d rather see a house with NO shutters than the dinky, plastic, glued down shutters i see so often that turn out to be eye clutter when you look at them. I guess Scott S and I go apoplectic over the same thing.
What do you think about type of hinge? Cast iron a must?
Nice post regarding your feelings but I am not sure the shutter police are a necessary evil in our modern world. Fake shutters were never intended to “fool” anyone. They are to add a bit of bling to an otherwise plain home front. I get it. They are fake- they are useless but they do change the look of the window. Kind of a trim out that you may apply to change the boring square to be more aesthetically pleasing. Life is short and I think I will never understand how something so trivial can garner so much attention. What’s next? Fake kerchief rant?
Great rant! I saw your video on making board and batten shutters, and was wondering if you were going to do one on making fixed or movable louver shutters? Also, what are you feelings on hinged shutters to cover larger picture windows?
This blog post had me cracking up. My husband is grateful I read this because now I no longer want them. Mission accomplished!
Yay!!
Same, great laughter to start my day
Maybe people should mind their own business.
They certainly should.
Thanks Scott! People are on this site because they share a commonality and are looking for solutions. Keep up the good work.
I have a 1936 colonial in Detroit w/ fake shutters. I’ve always been of the same mind as in this post. I’m tempted to remove my shutters, but do you think there’s a chance that the fake shutters were original to the home in 1936? Wish I had some old pictures of the house to reference.
Hard to say. Shutters are usually a planned part of the window layout so if they seem forced then maybe there originally not shutters. Though I have seen some original shutters from the 20th century that are not properly proportioned even though they are operable.
They are proportioned correctly. I’m guessing fake shutters were an advent of depression-era homes in Detroit? My neighborhood is chocked full of them. It’s the norm. But again, can’t be too sure they are original to the house since I don’t have a historic photo. What would you do??!
So I guess window trim is right out too.
Why would window trim be a problem?
I have and old pioneer home, but it’s now stucco in s warm yellow shade. Lots of trees and truly a sanctuary. My windows have 6″ white frames. Just plain 1/2″ cedar and my windows are paned in a cottage style. I have a dark brown roof, and s cranberry fr ok n door. 2 questions, do I apply to the wood frames ( the right width of course). I think it would look more authentic and should I match the roof po r the door. It’s an investment and i want to do it correctly. Thank you for any pointers.
I think ur asking the wrong guy here
I think they all look ugly. It makes a house look old. I guess if I were to have an old house like a Victorian or Colonial it could look nice, but I’d make sure they were real, or rip them off and put real ones on. On a newer house, they’d screw up the look.
Oh, the immense shame I feel after reading this!! As someone who cringes at fake purses, body parts, floral arrangements etc… I came upon this article while looking for… yep. So now I’m forever ruined and considering there’s no room for the actual size I need, I’m forced to get creative with my sad looking vacant space, that so desperately needs but will now never have, faux shutters. For anyone with the same issue… while writing this I decided to do “fake shutter” sized vertical herb/flower gardens.
And (more embarrassingly) as a decorator, I appreciate y’all stopping me from loosing cred-eek!!
Now, if I come apon a smack-talking article about vertical gardens, I’m just going to pour a stiff drink and be done with it.
I have to laugh. This is the first time I’ve ever heard anyone sharing my sentiments about fake shutters. My husband knows that if we ever end up buying a house with fake shutters, they are coming off within the first week!
I’m so glad I found this blog. I thought I was the only one out there who thought the idea of fake shutters is ridiculous. My problem is that when a drunk driver hit our house years ago we had some structural damage and we ended up residing. Through a series of “mishaps” we ended up with white siding and windows with white trim. I have been searching for years for a solution to the too-much-white problem. Any suggestions?
I thought about removing the fake vinyl shutters on my house, but they’re screwed onto the vinyl siding. Four screws, one in each corner. I’ll need to put some extra trim up, otherwise the windows will look too bare, but the trim won’t be wide enough to cover the outer screw holes. So I’m wondering what to do about those holes. Can I patch them somehow? With what? Thanks in advance!
We are possibly buying a rambler built in the 70s with no personality. Straight flat rectangle with almost identical detached garage next to it. Having the siding redone and adding a craftsmen style to it with a new front porch. However, I love the functionality of real shutters and really want to add them. Any suggestions on what style? Honestly I don’t even know what options there are. I just thought all shutters had slats, like my great-grandparents’ house did. Any help would be greatly appreciated!
I have a 1918 Dutch colonial. Attached to the house are shutter dogs (right term), but no hinges.. I want to put shutters back on the house, but NONE of those fake plastic types.
What style would I use..
Where would I find the rest of the hardware??
Hello! I agree, and being an older home owner I want to keep the look as authentic as possible. Shutters are not an option for my house (large windows but not enough space on either side for appropriate size shutters). Any suggestions on window treatments in lieu of shutters? I am repainting my house and love the effect of complimenting colors on exterior walls and shutters. I have a 1925 Mediterranean revival. Thank you!
I have fake shutters attached to my house, and I want to remove them—but I can’t find any screws or fasteners that are attaching them to my stuccoed exterior. Does anyone know how they are attached?
Thanks!
Usually the screws are capped with plastic pieces to hide them.
Thank you Scott. I’ll crank up my 71 year old eye balls and look harder!
By the way, I too really, really hate fake shutters!
I love this……my friends know me as the crazy person who stops the car to rant about fake shutters. My hatred started when I was twelve and one. of the neighbors, the Roses, mitered a fake shutter so that it would wrap a corner in order to connect two windows.
Christopher
my second favorite thing I love to hate are those patterned diaper bags they’ve convinced people are handbags (Vera Bradley).
Ha ha ha!
I just removed my fake shutters and I’m torn between replacing them with real ones or just leaving them off. It’s a one story, red brick house. I love the concept, but if I can’t have real, then I may not have them at all.
Good call!