When it comes to enhancing the aesthetic appeal and functionality of your home, premium wooden arched shutters stand out as a timeless and elegant choice. These exquisite window treatments not only add a touch of sophistication to your living space but also provide practical benefits. In this article, we'll explore the many advantages of premium wooden arched shutters and why they are an excellent investment for any homeowner.
Craftsmanship and Durability: Premium wooden arched shutters are a testament to superior craftsmanship. Crafted from high-quality hardwoods such as cedar, oak, or mahogany, these shutters are built to last. Their durability ensures that they will withstand the test of time, even in harsh weather conditions. This longevity makes them a sustainable and cost-effective choice for your home.
Timeless Elegance: Wooden shutters have a timeless beauty that complements any architectural style. The arched design adds a touch of elegance and sophistication to your windows, creating a focal point that enhances your home's curb appeal. Whether your home has a traditional, contemporary, or eclectic design, wooden arched shutters seamlessly blend in and elevate its aesthetics.
Energy Efficiency: Premium wooden arched shutters offer excellent insulation properties, helping you maintain a comfortable and energy-efficient home. When closed, they act as a barrier against outdoor temperatures, reducing heat transfer in the summer and heat loss in the winter. This translates to lower energy bills and a reduced carbon footprint.
Privacy and Light Control: With wooden arched shutters, you have complete control over the amount of light and privacy in your living spaces. Adjustable louvers allow you to customize the level of natural light entering your home while maintaining your privacy. This versatility makes them ideal for bedrooms, living rooms, and even bathrooms.
Increased Home Value: Investing in premium wooden arched shutters is an investment in your home's value. Potential buyers are often drawn to homes with high-quality window treatments, and wooden shutters are known to increase resale value. Moreover, their durability means you won't need to replace them frequently, saving you money in the long run.
Low Maintenance: Wooden arched shutters are surprisingly low maintenance. Regular dusting and occasional cleaning are all that's needed to keep them looking their best. Furthermore, they are less prone to staining and discoloration compared to other window treatments, ensuring they maintain their beauty over time.
Customization Options: Each home is unique, and your window treatments should be too. Premium wooden arched shutters offer a wide range of customization options, from paint and stain colors to louver sizes and hardware finishes. This allows you to tailor your shutters to match your home's specific style and decor.
Premium wooden arched shutters are more than just window coverings; they are a statement of style, quality, and practicality. Their timeless elegance, energy efficiency, and durability make them a smart choice for any homeowner looking to enhance their living space. Whether you're renovating your home or adding the finishing touches to a new build, consider investing in these exquisite window treatments to elevate both the beauty and functionality of your home.
Solid Wood Mortise and Tenons
True Tenons
Our premium quality shutters are carefully constructed using a time consuming and precise operation. Whereas other lower quality shutters are made using screws, nails, dowels or biscuit joints, each of our exterior wooden shutters has a minimum of 4 hardwood tenons. The end of each rail is painstakingly machined to have a 1/2" X 1 7/8" tenon by a custom built tenoning machine that Estate Millwork developed so that we could continue to provide the best quality joinery in the industry, at an attractive price. We gave up the cost, but not the quality.
Deep Pocket Mortises
Each stile is precision machined with a minimum of two deep pocket mortises, and these mortises perfectly fit the associated tenon. Again, Estate Millwork has used precision automation to preserve the quality of our products, while reducing the cost. We have software that connects our website directly to the machines in the plant, and when a customer places an order with us, all of the precision programs for machining the mortises into the stiles are sent to the plant for automatic execution. The mortise tenon joint, is the strongest joint in millwork, and adds tremendous strength, even without the use of glue.
Hardwood Dowels
Once the tenon and mortise have been machined, the parts are put together and a hole is drilled through the mortise and the tenon. A slightly oversized hardwood dowel is driven into the hole, locking the tenon into the mortise for the life of the shutter. Even though glue is not required, Estate Millwork takes the added step of gluing the tenon into the mortise, and gluing the hardwood dowel into the stile.
Hand Assembly
In our commitment to preserving the best of quality millwork traditions in each wood shutter, we have automated much of the drudgery of some of the operations, but assembling a shutter is still something very much in the realm of craftsmanship. After all the parts of each wooden shutter are manufactured, one of our skilled craftsmen fits them together in a specialized jig for dry fitting and final assembly. We do not use pneumatic or hydraulic clamps as they can damage or over-stress the wood. The craftsman uses his innate feel for the materials to set the appropriate clamping pressure prior to drilling and doweling. Each wooden shutter receives the individual attention of craftsmen all along the way, but the final assembly is where the shutter comes together the first time, ready for years of service on your home.
Shutter Options
Thickness, Width, Height
The "slab dimensions" are the size of the actual exterior shutter from top to bottom, left to right, and the thickness. Our default standard thickness is 1 5/16", but that can be varied from 7/8" to 2 1/4" to match existing exterior shutters. The length and height can be specified to the nearest 1/16" inch. Depending upon the style of the shutter, we have made widths up to 20 feet wide, and heights up 30 feet.
Shutter Frame Dimensions
Because all of our exterior wooden shutters are custom built from true rail and stile construction, we have the ability to replicate any component dimension on existing shutters, including rail height, placement, width, thickness, and stile width and thickness. Typically, the bottom rail of our custom shutters is 4. high, and all other rails are 2 1/2" inches. Stile widths are usually 2 1/2" but we have the ability to make them of virtually any width, including different widths for left and right stiles -- sometimes used for pairs of shutters.
Custom Sticking
Out standard products are S4S, or square shoulder sticking, but we have the capability to mould any feasible profile to the inner or outer frame fields. Common choices are ogee, cove and bead, bevel, cove etc. In addition to our stock sticking profiles, we can also custom grind tooling to achieve any desired profile to either match historical wood shutters, or to meet an architects or home owner.s specifications and preferences.
Shiplapping and Beading
For operable shutters, or for decoration, our wood shutters can be machined with a bead on one face of the inside edge of the shutter, and with a ship lap on the other, allowing the shutters to overlap by 3/8" when they are in the closed position - permitting a tighter fit. The left and right shutters are machined as pairs so that in the closed position, each face of the pair has a decorative bead visible.
Panel Profiles
Our raised panel shutters can be raised with our standard scoop profile, but we offer bevels, coves, ogeees and other profiles as well. Additionally, for the extremely discriminating home owner or architect we can create new tooling to match existing historical panel profiles, or to meet with a unique custom requirement.
Louver Styles
Our louvered shutters can be fitted with either our standard bullnose louvers in 3 sizes, or with a chevron or bevel profile as options. And because we are a custom shutter maker, we can also accommodate any special profiles that are specified by the customer.
Cut Outs
Raised Panel and Flat Panel Shutters can have a limitless variety of decorative cut outs machined into the center of the panels. Common shapes are moons, anchors, trees, hearts and we have a large number of stock cut outs which we offer, as well as the ability to match custom patterns that are provided by the customer
Finishes
Estate Millwork can ship our custom wooden shutters in natural, primed, painted or stained finishes. We can match national brand color numbers, pre-tint primers for light or dark finishes, and apply hand rubbed stain finished, even to the time consuming louvered shutters.
Stunning and Distinctive Sapele Wood
Sapele lumber is a type of hardwood derived from the sapele tree (Entandrophragma cylindricum), which is native to tropical regions of West Africa. Sapele is highly regarded for its beautiful appearance, durability, and versatility. Sapele lumber is prized for its combination of aesthetic appeal and durability, making it a favored choice among woodworkers and builders for various applications. Its striking appearance, workability, and resistance to decay make it an excellent option for both interior and exterior projects.
Sapele hardwood, often referred to as "African mahogany," is a hidden gem in the world of fine woodworking and interior design. Sapele hardwood boasts a rich, reddish-brown to deep mahogany color that matures gracefully over time, developing a luxurious patina that enhances its natural elegance. Its striking ribbon-like grain patterns and lustrous appearance make it a favorite choice among designers and craftsmen looking to create distinctive and eye-catching pieces. One of the key features of sapele hardwood is its exceptional durability. It is highly resistant to wear, decay, and rot, making it an ideal choice for both indoor and outdoor applications. Its stability and strength ensure that your sapele hardwood projects will remain stunning and functional for generations. Sapele hardwood is highly workable and finishes beautifully, allowing you to achieve your desired look, whether it's a clear finish that highlights its rich grain or a darker stain that adds depth and character. Its adaptability makes it an excellent choice for a wide range of projects, from fine furniture and cabinetry to boat building and musical instruments.
Handcrafted with Sustainably Harvested Lumber
At Estate Millwork we air dry much of our lumber, and after air drying we finish drying in low wattage dehumidification kilns.
Every piece of wood we purchase is used to the fullest on products, at Estate Millwork we have a very high yield ratio of 94 percent due to the use of automated saws and optimizing software. The remainimg 6 percent which is mostly sawdust and chips are either burned to heat our plant or send to local cattle farmers for bedding and composting.
Nothing is wasted. Some of Appalachian lumber we use comes from Amish farmers in our county who harvest with horses instead of mechanized equipment, and do our rough sawing on 1920s sawmills that are also extremely low input compared to larger commercial sawmills of today. All of our imported lumber is plantation grown, and not harvested from natural forests.
To learn more about our sustainability practices click here
