How and Where To Add Café Shutters In Your Home

Café shutters are highly functional window treatments that exude old-world charm. They’re unlike traditional shutters because they only cover half of your window, which makes them wonderful for privacy without compromising on natural light. At Budget Blinds of Tempe and Central Phoenix, we take it one step further. Our café shutters are custom designed to fit any window and style, and are installed by our in-house team of experts. 

The term café style shutters is taken from the aesthetics of Parisian-style half shutters that are commonly found in patisseries, cafés and restaurant front windows. They’re specially designed to only cover the bottom half of the window, which allows restaurant and café patrons to enjoy their meal in privacy, while enjoying the sun as well. 

Café shutters from Budget Blinds of Tempe and Central Phoenix allow you to bring the same style and functionality into your home. Café shutters are a popular choice and are available in both wood and polymer (a lighter material than wood). 

If you do plan to purchase café style shutters for your window, our design experts will be ready to take exact measurements of your window to make sure the fit is immaculate. They will match your windows and specifications, guaranteed. Give us a call today or visit us online to schedule your free consultation!

Pros of Café Shutters

Café have a lot of benefits. For one, the charm they bring is unmatched — even full-length shutters can’t replicate the open feel and the old-world charm. Their material also makes them perfect for any room. Polymer is perfect for more humid rooms such as kitchens and bathrooms, while the wood looks amazing in living rooms, dining rooms, and offices. The best part about your options too? They fit almost any budget. 

Additionally, you can customize how much of your window is covered and how much is open. For example, you can choose shutters that cover one-third, one-half, or two-thirds your window! You’re not locked into that “half” design at all. Whatever your style is, we can match it. 

Café shutters also offer these benefits:

• Unobstructed light entry at the top of the window opening.
• Customizable height for privacy or design aesthetic.
• Café Style shutters can bring the elegance and privacy of shutters into your home in a more cost-effective way than Full Height or Tier on Tier style.

Cons of Café Shutters

Like with everything, there are pros and there are cons. When it comes to café shutters, the cons are few and far between, but we would be remiss if we didn’t point them out all the same. 

The biggest drawback of them is that they don’t cover your entire window. It’s part of their aesthetic, but it also means that you’re not going to be able to block out the sun entirely with these. While this may be a ‘pro’ depending on your window and intended use, it can be less flexible than other styles if you think you may eventually want to add shutters to the upper portion of the window opening.

It’s something to think about if you want to protect your home from the harsh Arizona sunlight, or if you want to keep your home insulated as much as possible. If these are the case, then you should look into cellular shades or full-length shutters instead. 

Here are other things to consider: 

• Due to their design, they’re not as sturdy or as easy to install as full-length shutters
• They don’t work well on smaller or shorter windows

What Rooms are Great for Café Shutters?

In truth, only one room won’t work for this style of window treatments, but we’ll get into that later. Café shutters are beautiful options for the following rooms: 

• Living rooms
• Dining rooms
• Office spaces
• Kitchens
• Bathrooms 

They offer unmatched elegance to every room and allow in a beautiful stream of natural sunlight. Because of their design, they also offer a great amount of privacy at eye-level so you won’t have to worry about anyone on the street peering in. In fact, you’ll likely have to stand on your tiptoes to see over them! All of that being said, you probably noticed that we left out one very important room: the bedroom. 

Where These Don’t Work 

We mentioned it earlier, but it’s impossible for café shutters to block out every bit of light. This makes them a horrible option for bedrooms, especially if you’re light sensitive. You won’t be able to block out the morning or evening sun with these shutters alone. You’ll need to pair them with drapes or curtains to achieve a black-out effect. 

So we at Budget Blinds of Tempe and Central Phoenix highly recommend you keep these out of the bedroom and out of east/west-facing windows to keep your house cool and illuminated whe and where you want it.