How To Differentiate Between Plantation Shutters, Window Shades, And Window Blinds In New York

Blinds, Shutters, and shades–oh my! All the different window treatments available can seem too much whenever you have to pick one for your New York property. Grasping how to differentiate between each variety will assist you in deciding which styles will function and look best on the windows you need to cover. Here, we explain the advantages, cons, and ideal spots for interior shutters, window shades, and window blinds in New York.

The Pros And Cons Of Louvered Shutters

Interior shutters are built from hardwood or a highly durable composite and go into your home where they secure permanently to your window with a shutter frame built around the window framework. Easy-to-move panels inside the frame smoothly glide open for total light and an unobstructed view or shut tightly to blanket your window for a dark, private interior. When the panels are closed, you can also turn the louvers for the right amount sunshine and manipulate them to redirect light wherever you want.

The Pros

Interior shutters stand out from other window treatments due to their specialized design. Aside from looking quite different, they also offer several remarkable advantages for New York properties:

• Give your home beautiful architectural detail

• Find them in neutral colors to blend with your design now and in the future if you change your home’s look

• Give You absolute privacy and near-total darkness when closed

• Open easily for sunlight and a sightline to your exterior

• Accommodate any uniquely shaped window like half-circles and hexagons

• Move glare with the slats

• Simple to dust and clean

• Provide an amazing degree of energy efficiency

• An enduring fixture that increases your New York home’s value

• Many customizable choices to design the style you would like while fulfilling your unique needs

In addition to these pros, faux-wood Polywood® shutters come with their own noteworthy benefits: 

• Unrivaled toughness with resistance to damage that comes with extreme temps, moisture, and the sun

• Last a lifetime without bending, splitting, or chipping

• Patented weather protection for impressive energy efficiency and lower utility bills

Generally, Polywood shutters will do any job you need a window covering to accomplish, from upgrading your window’s style to obstructing cold air and damaging UV rays. And they function and look just as great decades later as the date you installed them.

The Cons

Louvered shutters’ one downside is that they come only in neutral colors. Although their adaptable coloration goes with all types of decor, you’ll be required to go with window shades or blinds if you are determined to install colorful or patterned window treatments.

How To Use Plantation Shutters

You are able to use interior shutters on any window within your New York residence. Custom shutters accommodate any shape and size of window without losing their function. Put them on half-circle, angled, and French door windows just as easily as regular rectangular windows.

You may also position Polywood shutters in any space. Use them for their longevity and energy efficiency in humid bathrooms, cold attic dormers, or sun-filled rooms. Shutters are even a great choice in family spaces and children’s rooms because they don’t use cords that create a safety threat.

The Pros And Cons Of Window Shades

Window shades are available in many different styles, although, for the most part, all have a piece of fabric hung over your window. You generally pull the fabric up or down to shield and unshield your window using the bottom pull bar or corded mechanism, but you are able to find motorized options as well.

Window shades don’t have louvers to control light and privacy, but lower opacity or loosely woven fibrous shades will allow light into dark areas while obscuring the view into your interior. Or you might consider top-down/bottom-up shades that let you reveal the upper region of your window for sunlight while preserving your privacy below.

The Pros

New York homeowners enjoy window shades because they are available in various colors, materials, and styles. You’ll find shades with common colors and vibrant tones, solid color or dramatic patterns, transparent or non-transparent opacities, neatly folded fabric or natural fibers, and various other options. If you want a unique focal point when overhauling an interior, window shades in the ideal color or pattern will boost your ambience and cover your windows.

Individual window shade styles have their own benefits as well. Roller shades have a sleek feel. Cellular shades will boost efficiency. Tumble shades work well on door windows. And sheer shades provide a nice combination of filtered light and privacy.

The Cons

Window shades don’t offer the resiliency of firm window coverings and may be challenging to clean. Their soft materials will in time discolor from the sun or can tear, develop mold, or get stained. You might expect to replace window shades every three or four years as they break down or you alter your home’s style.

Window shades also provide less versatility in manipulating light and privacy than louvered shutters. Even opening them a bit means you give up your privacy on half of the window and can’t adjust how light enters. And many window shades will display shadows when your lights are on during the night. And rectangular window shades in New York compel you to pick between hiding a specialty window’s unique shape or keeping the window uncovered all the time.

How To Utilize Window Shades

Numerous New York homeowners opt for window shades because they are looking for colorful window products to match their interior. They are perfect for less occupied spaces where they can avoid damage from persistent usage.

You might also employ various kinds of window shades for their particular purposes. Select cellular shades to aid in halting outside drafts. Slim roller shades fit in spots where you don’t want a bulky window treatment. Blackout shades keep out light to get a better night’s rest. Woven fiber shades incorporate a natural element to your property. And of course, custom shades will always operate more smoothly and look better on your windows than off-the-shelf options.

The Pros And Cons Of Window Blinds

Window blinds have long, connected slats made of a firm material that you let down over your windows to cover them. Blinds function with pull cords or cordless functionality. As well as concealing windows with blinds, you can also rotate the slats open or closed with a rod for extra control over sunlight.

The Pros

The advantages of window blinds depend on the materials they’re fabricated with. By design, all blinds conceal windows to obstruct outside light and views inside your New York interior, but their substance and quality of manufacturing determine how successfully they achieve this. You might see light and silhouettes with low-cost vinyl blinds. Metal and vinyl blinds also curve and fracture with ease, leaving unsightly gaps that permit outside light. For these blinds, their affordability and short lifespan make them suitable mostly as interim window products.

Quality natural wood and faux-wood blinds use more robust slats that cover windows more completely. You won’t have to worry about seeing through them, and they don’t damage quickly. The wood or synthetic construction, mixed with the pleasant defined edges of the slats, look more sophisticated as well. Superior natural wood and faux-wood blinds are available in versatile neutral shades that go with the decor of any space.

Blinds allow you to control the quantity of light that enters through your windows. You are able to move them up for an unfettered view and total sunlight or guide them down for privacy and darkness. If your blinds are drawn down, you can also tilt open the slats for a restricted view and some sunlight.

The Cons

Wood and faux-wood blinds look similar to interior shutters but aren’t as tough. The cords incorporated into the slats may unravel over time, and wood slats can warp and crack from an abundance of moisture or extreme temperature variations. Blinds also come with lots of elements that will make them tricky to clean, and corded blinds may stick or get tangled when you try to use them.

Despite the fact that made-to-order blinds will fit your windows in terms of size, they won’t have the complete protection around the borders that shutters offer since they aren’t enclosed by a frame. You’ll also notice that both window blinds and shades in New York will swing and knock against your window if bumped or caught in a wind gust. This movement lets people see in and allows sunlight.

How To Use Window Blinds

Premium blinds are a great choice in any area for rectangular or square windows. Be sure to install waterproof faux-wood blinds in humid spaces like baths and kitchens. And cordless or motorized blinds are safer products in the event you have children or pets.

Sunburst Has It All From Plantation Shutters To Window Blinds And Shades In New York

Want to know more about the pros and cons of interior shutters, window blinds, and window shades in New York? Sunburst Shutters New York offers the most incredible selection of premium window treatments in the area and can answer any questions you might have. We offer complimentary in-home consultations to display our choices and give you a chance to decide which window treatments look best in your residence. Arrange yours by dialing 631-246-3930 or filling out the form below.