Kitchen Shutters

I was looking around on Pinterest one day and came across the idea for some country style window shutters (click here). I really liked the look and figured it would be something easy to try out.

First I took the measurements and then designed what I wanted in an Excel spreadsheet.

The original plan was to build it out of 1x6 common board from Home Depot (Model # 914762/ Internet # 202074481/ Store SKU # 914762) and cut it down to the right dimensions. However, when I got to the store I found that Home Depot had started carrying 1x5 common board. It was cheaper and would require less work for me to cut down on the table saw. Perfect! I also picked up some Tee Hinges (Model # 15032/ Internet #202034066/ Store SKU #102024), four black heavy duty decorative strap hinge (Model # 15024/ Internet #202034146/ Store SKU #101974), two light duty door pulls (Model # 15447/ Internet #202034078/ Store SKU #831328), and a small decorative eye and hook clasp.

Unfortunately I did not know that I would be blogging about this later so did not take a lot of pictures of the process. It was pretty simple though. I cut the 6 ft long 1x5s in half and laid the eight pieces next to each other and then one across the top and bottom. I made sure they were square and then marked the two crossing boards where I would need to cut them. Once they were cut I lined the boards up and ensured that they were square with my large metal square. If they are not aligned properly they will not fit into the window properly when you reconnect them with the hardware.

I then attached the boards with a nail gun. The nails didn't hold as well as I hoped so I ended up attaching wood screws through the back to secure everything together. Once attached I had the kids take some screw drivers and other tools and beat up the different pieces of wood to add some character. Then I painted the boards with some leftover white paint from another project. After the paint dried I took some sand paper to the edges of the boards to give it some additional wear. Then I took some stain and ran it along the edges and wiped off the residue.

The last thing was to attach the hardware. It really started taking shape with the hardware. Here is what it looked like before I installed in the kitchen.

Here is the view from the front.

Here is close-up from the front.

Here is the detail from the back. Love the black on white. Screw holes add some additional characters too.

When I went to hang the shutters in the window I realized that because the corners were rounded it would be difficult to attach the hardware to the walls. To get around this I took some 1x3s and attached them to the outside edge of the window sill to create square edges. I then attached the shutters to the 1x3s.

It turned out very nicely and with the light that was blocked in the afternoon this area became one of the coolest rooms in the house.

Here is the window with the shutters opened.

Here is the final product with the wall around the window freshly painted and some plants from IKEA as a finishing touch.

Hope you enjoyed how it turned out as well as I did. Please let me know if you end up trying it yourself. It is always neat to see what others try and the variations.