Wooden raised panel shutters are the epitome of classic elegance, providing a timeless charm that enhances the curb appeal and interior design of any home. In this article, we will delve into the world of these beautiful shutters, exploring the many reasons they have remained a popular choice for homeowners. Discover the benefits, design versatility, and care tips for wooden raised panel shutters, and see how they can elevate your home's aesthetic.
Benefits of Wooden Raised Panel Shutters
Timeless Appeal: Wooden raised panel shutters exude a timeless charm that never goes out of style. Their intricate detailing and depth create a classic look that enhances the architectural beauty of any home.
Enhanced Curb Appeal: These shutters have the power to transform your home's exterior, giving it a sense of depth, texture, and character that sets it apart from the rest of the neighborhood.
Interior Elegance: Wooden raised panel shutters are not limited to the exterior. When used as interior window treatments, they add a touch of sophistication and warmth to your living spaces.
Customization: The flexibility of wooden raised panel shutters allows for customization in terms of size, color, and finish. This means you can tailor them to your exact design preferences and home requirements.
Durability: When properly maintained, these shutters can last for decades, providing an excellent return on your investment.
Design Versatility
Traditional Elegance: Raised panel shutters are the epitome of traditional design. They feature a central raised panel with stiles and rails, creating a sophisticated look suitable for various architectural styles.
Color Options: These shutters can be painted or stained to match your home's color palette. Choose from a wide range of finishes to achieve the desired aesthetic.
Combination Styles: Mix and match raised panel shutters with other shutter styles to create a unique and balanced appearance, such as pairing them with louvered or board and batten shutters.
Architectural Harmony: Raised panel shutters work seamlessly with both colonial and Victorian-style homes, providing an architectural harmony that complements the overall design.
Care Tips for Longevity
Regular Cleaning: Wipe the shutters with a soft, damp cloth to remove dust and grime. Avoid abrasive materials or harsh chemicals that could damage the finish.
Repainting or Refinishing: Periodically inspect your shutters for signs of wear or peeling paint. Repaint or refinish them as needed to maintain their beautiful appearance and protect the wood.
Inspect Hardware: Ensure that hinges, latches, and other hardware are secure and functioning properly.
Protect from Moisture: Wooden shutters can be susceptible to moisture. Proper sealing and maintenance will help prevent rot, warping, and other water-related damage.
Beautiful wooden raised panel shutters are a classic choice that adds elegance and character to your home's exterior and interior. Their timeless appeal, design versatility, and durability make them a worthwhile investment. By following the recommended care tips, you can enjoy the benefits of these shutters for years to come, enhancing your home's overall aesthetic.
Elegant Raised Panel Shutters
Our Atlantic Collection of Raised Panel Shutters is based upon a sculpted raised panel surrounded by a sturdy mortise and tenon frame with beautifully proportioned rails and stiles. These shutters make stunning accents to Colonial and Georgian styles of homes, as well as many other traditional strains of architecture. Our Atlantic collection comes in a wide variety of styles, and we can further accommodate discerning home owners and architects with completely custom designs that can include custom sticking profiles, panel profiles, cut outs, radius tops and more.
Solid, Premium Hardwoods
Every raised panel shutter that we build for our customers is made to order from the finest grades of solid Cherry lumber that are available. We are especially careful with the stock that will become panels as the raised panels themselves are actually composed of multiple boards which are held together with a precision machined spline joint, and then glued and sealed with a specially formulated exterior wood glue. Each board is hand selected for the job by our state of the art software and expert craftsman. Estate Millwork does one hundred percent of the sawing, dimensioning and machining of our Cherry lumber so that we can keep the tightest control of quality.
Timeless Craftsmanship
The precisely crafted component parts receive further attention prior to assembly. The raised panels are 15/16" thick and are raised with a sweeping ogee profile that give strong highlight lines as well as gradual shadings that emphasize the true three dimensional nature of these raised panel shutters. The raised panels are set in deeply machined relief slots in the shutter frame that allow the panel to float, protecting both the Cherry frame and Cherry panel from damage when the panel slightly expands and contracts with changes in temperature. After all of the parts have been crafted, they are assembled into a raised panel shutter, glued and pegged and machine sanded. After the machine sanding process, the shutters are then hand sanded, and carefully finished to the customer's specifications which may require a natural finish, a primed/painted combination or staining.
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.
Cherry a Rich and Beautiful Hardwood
The Appalachian region of the United States produces beautiful Cherry wood, it is a domestic hardwood lumber is known for its beautiful, rich color and good working properties. Cherry is chosen for its fine uniform texture, has straight grain and is reddish-brown in color with the occasional appearance of gum spots. The heartwood is particularly durable and has good resistance to decay. The warm tones and subtle grain pattern of Cherry wood make it an excellent interior wood for doors, windows, mouldings, and, especially, furniture. The predictable movement of properly dried Cherry lumber and the ease with which it can be worked have made the species a staple material in many projects.
Many people love Cherry wood for its color, but rough sawn Cherry lumber is a much lighter pink than what most expect. Today, many Cherry finishes are much deeper browns and reds, and this can cause some confusion, but over time with UV exposure and oxidation, the color to deepens into a beautiful brownish-red. Some people choose to expose their Cherry lumber to the sun to speed up this process, while others rely upon dye and/or stains to achieve the deep red color. This "break in" period is something of which everyone should be aware, especially when doing restoration work to match existing trim or furniture.
Cherry hardwood is a timeless and luxurious choice for woodworking and interior design projects, prized for its remarkable beauty and versatility. Our cherry hardwood is carefully sourced and meticulously crafted to ensure exceptional quality. Cherry wood is renowned for its rich, reddish-brown tones and distinctive grain patterns, which deepen and mellow over time, adding character and warmth to any setting. Whether you're crafting custom cabinetry, elegant furniture, or breathtaking flooring, cherry hardwood provides a touch of sophistication that never goes out of style. One of the unique qualities of cherry hardwood is its ability to develop a stunning patina as it ages, making it a truly heirloom-worthy material. Its natural beauty is further enhanced when finished with our premium stains and finishes, allowing you to achieve the exact aesthetic you desire. Cherry hardwood is not only about aesthetics; it's also known for its durability and strength.
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
