Atlanta's Frequently Asked Questions About Shutters

For more than 8 years, we’ve received every question about shutters you can think of from our customers in Atlanta. And we’ve put together the top ten of them here. Maybe in these questions and answers you’ll find answers to questions of your own. If not, please don’t hesitate to contact Sunburst Shutters Atlanta directly. We’re here to assist you and happy to do so.

That is based on how you want the shutters to interact with your home’s décor. Do you want a shutter that contrasts your wall paint color and has clean lines? Polywood® plantation shutters are ideal for you. Or are you looking to copy the wood in your home as closely as possible? Ovation® wood shutters are a better fit for you.

Plantation shutters are celebrated for being energy efficient. And to get the most energy savings, our Polywood Shutter Insulation System is the only choice.

For the budget-conscious, blinds can be temporary window treatments to cover your windows. Cheaper store-bought blinds are susceptible to deteriorating over time, with its strings snapping and the loops that hold the slats in place falling apart. Not to mention, they are difficult to clean. Even if you're budget-conscious, Sunburst Shutters blinds have the durability and craftsmanship lacking in off-the-rack, store-bought, or online blinds.

Shades offer a variety of colors, materials, and unique patterns, transforming your window into artwork. Just by pulling up the fabric of the shade, your full window is exposed and you can see out onto your Atlanta neighborhood.

Draperies also come in a wide spectrum of color, fabric, and patterns. They are a traditional choice for a window treatment. Placing thick panels between the drapes and the window provides you with light and temperature block-out capabilities. And unlike other window treatments, there’s no rush to clean draperies for five years.

If you are searching for a window treatment that lasts over 10 years, saves you money on your energy bills, and looks exquisite on your windows, shutters are the choice for your home. Not only are shutters durable, but they’re also elegant and energy efficient. Actually, Polywood shutters insulate up to 70% better than a comparable wood shutter. That's energy savings you will miss out on with any other window treatment.

No other window treatment gives you control over privacy and light as plantation shutters do. And with their large louvers, Polywood plantation shutters give your room a clean contemporary feel whether they’re closed or open.

A poorly installed window treatment can be a hassle to open and can get damaged easily. We have an expert installation crew that comes to your home and installs your window treatment exactly, ensuring that each one moves flawlessly – and doesn’t get damaged when opened and closed.

But before we get to installing your shutters, we bring shutter samples to your home so we can custom craft your window treatment together. Learn more about our free in-home consultation.

Your plantation shutter slats – or louvers – can be moved without difficulty by tilting them up or down. Usually, a tilt rod mounted on the front of the shutters allows you to adjust the louvers. If you would like to move the louvers with your hand, we suggest buying shutters with hidden tilt-rods or rear-mounted tilt rods. This gives your shutters a clean, contemporary feel.

Our Polywood shutters last more than 50 years – more than any other shutter in the industry. That’s why these plantation shutters are a permanent fixture that adds to your home’s resale value. Learn more about the durability of our shutters.

Plantation shutters are easy to clean because they have large louvers and their tilt bars are either hidden or mounted on the rear. Merely tilt them open and dust them like furniture – or wipe smudges with a wet cloth.

Plantation shutters are custom built to fit your windows perfectly. They become a permanent fixture of your home, boosting its resale value. This means they can’t be moved from one house to another.

Plantation shutters are an investment that allows temperature control, energy efficiency, and privacy. They are custom made and installed on your windows to become permanent fixtures. Not only are they beautiful and energy saving, but plantation shutters also increase the value of your house. We’ve seen it first hand in Atlanta!

A half shutter gives you privacy on the bottom and leaves the top open for light and view. It’s called a café style shutter. But is it the ideal look for a plantation shutter?

Cafe Shutters Cafe Style Shutters With Divider

In the end, it’s a style choice – whether you like the look of a half shutter or that of a plantation shutter with a divider rail.

A full length shutter with a divider rail “completes” your window, giving it a well-rounded look – and giving you the option to close the bottom louvers for privacy while leaving the top louvers open for light. At night, you are able to close the top louvers as well for privacy and security. This also comes in handy during the day when the sun is hindering you from watching TV. And don’t worry about losing any of your view. A 3.5" or 4.5" louver will almost disappear when opened flat and gives you abundant of a view to look through.

Piece of cake! Call us at 404-962-8517 or fill out the form below to schedule your free in-home consultation, and we’ll guide you from there. We come out to your home to measure the windows you want to shutter and bring samples of all of our shutter products and their available options. This allows us to provide you with the appropriate shutter estimate for your project. Schedule your in-home consultation today!

Yes! There’s a need to remove or do work on your current window trim when installing new plantation shutters. Natural Ovation wood shutters and deluxe Polywood shutters are available in an array of frame styles to fit easily into your existing window trim. If your windows have no trim, we offer frame styles to install directly onto the wall around your window to secure your beautiful new shutters to your window opening.

Your shutter installation team will measure each of your home’s windows during your free design consultation to make sure that your window trim is perfectly complemented by the frame of your new window treatment.

Sunburst Shutters Atlanta is happy to provide a range of shutters made right here in America. Polywood plantation shutters are not only America’s #1-selling shutter, but they’re 100% made in America. Not only does that result in savings passed on to you from cutting unnecessary shipping and handling costs, it also gives you the bonus of knowing you’re choosing an all-American window treatment for your Atlanta home.

And Polywood isn’t alone in hailing from the U.S. Our stunning Reclaimed Wood shutters are built using lumber gathered from places across the country, from homespun Southern barn doors to beautiful New England fences and more.

The main difference between paints and stains for shutters is the way the color interacts with the shutter material. Paint lays atop the material it’s coloring, covering the surface. Stains conversely, seep into the shutter, becoming a part of the natural wood or Polywood material.

The two color options have their own unique benefits. There are typically more color choices for painted shutters. With stained shutters, the color doesn’t obscure the natural wood grain, so you can see the random grooves and bumps of the material without it being hidden by a layer of paint.

During your in-home shutter consultation, we’ll bring paint and stain samples directly to your home so you can perfectly match and complement colors with your existing interior design.

The whole plantation shutter process, from your initial consultation to installing the shutters, will take about four to six weeks on average. The process takes this long because our goal is to build the perfect shutters for your windows. To do that, we need to take exact measurements, make use of sophisticated software to design your shutters, assemble your brand-new shutters by hand, and get them to your home for installation. Wood shutters typically take longer than faux wood due to the added steps of staining and finishing the wood.

It does take some time, but it’s absolutely worth the wait.

Sunburst Shutters Atlanta offers a total in-home shopping experience. We’ll send a representative to your home to measure all your windows, show you your options, and give you a quote. The shutter consultation is totally free. That’s the simplest way to start your window treatment project. If you’re only looking for a rough estimate, you can submit the measurements of your windows through our contact form, or by calling us at 404-962-8517.

That’s up to your personal taste. If you want to keep the trim you already have, we’re able to build your shutters to fit with your current trim. If you like our shutter frames better, then you can take out the existing trim—but it’s not a necessity. If you want to go without trim or replace your trim, we’ll help you choose the best option to match the vision you have in mind for your windows.

If you’re a seasoned DIYer, you might be familiar with what goes into installing shutters. However, DIY shutters can be a bit tricky for most Atlanta residents. Our suggestion is to leave the installation to professionals that are certified and insured, that way you won’t risk damage to your shutters, your windows, or anything else in your home.

Far and away our most in-demand shutter options are our classic white Polywood® faux wood plantation shutters, and Ovation® hardwood shutters.

Beyond that, the most popular shutter configuration we sell is a 3 ½” louver, smooth finish, and an interior-mount Z-frame. If all that information is confusing, that’s ok. We’ll be delighted to show you what all those things mean in person. Set up your complimentary home consultation and we’ll show you what would look best in your home.

Shutters with a smooth finish tend to look more modern and suave, whereas shutters with a textured finish look more natural and historic. But the benefits to each style of plantation shutter finish are a little deeper, and ultimately it comes down to your own style.

Perks of a smooth finish for shutters – A smooth finish to your shutters give you a clean, chic, modern look. A smooth finish might be perfect for you if your home doesn’t have much in the way of wood grain surfaces or furniture. A smooth finish is easier to see when it needs dusting, compared to a textured finish. We typically recommend a smooth finish for faux wood shutters like Polywood.

Perks of shutters with a textured finish – Shutters with a wood grain finish add a more natural look to your windows. That’s fantastic if your goal is to bring the look of nature inside, especially if you want to complement the look of your hardwood flooring. A wood grain on your shutter louvers can also make it harder to see dust, meaning you don’t need to wipe them down as frequently as you would if they were smooth. A textured finish looks especially great on real wood shutters in Atlanta.

Typically, the larger the window, the more shutter panels you’ll want on it. The most ideal layout is to use one panel for windows up to 26” wide, two panels for windows up to 50” wide, and four for windows up to 98” wide.

Single wide panels aren’t as room-friendly as multiple separate panels. Oftentime, wide panel shutters can’t fit flush against the wall due to their width. Two smaller panels solve that issue.

For any windows that you’ll want to open or shut regularly, you’ll be better off with multiple panels, since they’re easier to open and get better support from the shutter frame when you do open and close them.

With Sunburst Shutters Atlanta, all of your window measurements will be done by our team for free as part of your in-home consultation. If you happen to have windows in a difficult to reach area of your home or you have windows with a unique shape, our shutter pros can get you an exact measurement so that your shutters will line up just right with the windows.

At your complimentary in-home consultation, your Sunburst Shutters expert will help you pick from our wide variety of Atlanta plantation shutters, featuring choices for finish, stain colors, and custom framing options.

So schedule your free consultation now by calling 404-962-8517 today.

Sunburst can help you pick the perfect shutter for your rooms, no matter how thin your frame. We will work with an outside mount installation that connects to the trim or wall outside the window opening . Your window treatments will still have equivalent functionality and energy efficiency, and will integrate perfectly into your design scheme.

If the louver is disconnected and jutting from the frame, you could have a broken louver pin. To fix this you will want to remove the pin from both the louver and the stile with a set of needle-nose pliers or a utility knife. Once the pin is taken out, insert the undamaged pin base into the same hole in the shutter stile, then guide the louver onto the pin. To acquire replacement louver pins for free, just call us at 404-962-8517.

The cost of plantation shutters depends on the chosen product line and window dimensions. While we can present you an estimate over the phone, complete prices are determined after our complimentary in-person consultation. Call 404-962-8517 to make an appointment today.

To start, remove the snapped staple from the louver with a pair of needle-nose pliers. Then apply some adhesive (like wood glue or epoxy) to coat the legs of a replacement staple. weave the staple into the loop on the louver and slide its legs into the previous staple holes on the tilt rod. For extra shutter staples, call us at 404-962-8517.

Polywood shutters are seen as some of the safest window coverings in Atlanta. The durable, cord-free construction is perfect for kids and pets. The toxin-free and hypoallergenic paint and materials will never peel or chip. And since Polywood is pest and moisture resistant, you won’t have to wonder about bugs, mold, or wood rot.