Plantation Shutters in Portsmouth, RI

A Bright Side and a Shaded Side

Portsmouth sits on an island with water on both sides, and a great many houses here are built to look out over one bay or the other. The result is a house with two personalities: a bright side facing the water, full of glass and light, and a shaded side toward the road or the hill, with smaller windows and a cooler, dimmer feel. Planning plantation shutters in Portsmouth, RI starts with knowing which side is which, because the two sides want quite different things from the same shutter.

The housing ranges widely. The cottages of Island Park and Common Fence Point are small and close together, with modest windows and low rooms. The newer colonials off East Main Road have regular windows in matching sets. The larger homes near the water bring tall, wide glass. Across all of them, the louvre size and the frame style are picked window by window after we have measured.

• Shutters for the inside of the house, never the exterior
• Louvre size chosen for the bright side and the shaded side
• Frames made for small cottage openings and broad water-facing glass

Portsmouth Houses, Portsmouth Shutters

Point cottage

Small windows in compact rooms, fitted with slim-slatted shutters that screen a near neighbour and still let the daylight through.

East Main Road colonial

Regular double-hung windows in sets across two floors, given one slat and one colour so every elevation matches.

Kitchen on the shady side

Panels across the lower sash only, keeping the counter private while the little light that side gets comes in over the top.

One Shutter, Two Jobs

On the water side of a Portsmouth house, the problem is too much light. The sun crosses the bay and comes in strong, often with a second dose reflected off the surface. Rooms there need their glare cut without losing the view that made someone build them that way in the first place.

On the land side, the problem is the reverse. The rooms are dimmer and the windows smaller, and the job is to keep privacy, especially where the neighbour’s house or the road is close, while letting in every bit of daylight that arrives.

Shutters can do both at once because the louvres are adjustable window by window. On the bright side, angle the slats down and the sky and the shine off the water are blocked while you look out beneath them; fold the panels away when the sun moves on. On the shaded side, tilt the slats so their top edge leans into the room: the view in from outside is cut off, and daylight is bounced up off the ceiling to brighten the room.

The one thing both sides should share is how they look. Using a single louvre size and a single paint colour throughout means the house looks consistent from inside and out, even though the shutters on the two sides spend most of the day set quite differently.

Island Park and Common Fence Point Cottages

The cottages at Island Park and Common Fence Point are close-set, compact and low, many of them built on small lots near the water. Their windows are modest in size, often a little irregular, and many face straight across to the next cottage only a few steps away.

That closeness makes privacy the first concern on the sides that face the neighbours. A shutter is ideal: slats tilted up block the view across while the daylight still comes in, and the panels close fully at night. On the side facing the water, the same cottage may have a larger window or a glazed door, and that side becomes the bright side, with the louvres angled against the glare.

Small cottage windows usually suit a narrower louvre. More slats in a small panel give a neat, balanced look; a very wide slat on a small window would look heavy. Where a cottage window sits in a shallow frame with plain trim, a frame fixed on the wall around it gives the slats room to turn. Where the window is set back a little, the frame can go inside.

Cottage rooms are compact, and furniture often sits right up against the window. Shutter panels swing into the room, so we look at what is in front of each window and plan the panel widths and the way they fold so they open without hitting the bed or the sofa. On a very small window, a single panel can be the neatest answer.

Plantation Shutters in Portsmouth, RI: Louvre and Frame

The two main choices for any shutter are the width of the louvre and the style of the frame, and both work out differently from one part of Portsmouth to another.

Louvre width

A broad louvre leaves bigger gaps when it is tilted flat. That suits the large water-facing windows of the bigger houses, where the view is the reason for the room. A narrow louvre gives a finer pattern and suits small cottage windows and the shaded side of a house. A middle width is the usual choice for the colonials off East Main Road. Most households settle on one width for the whole house; if the bright side and the shaded side seem to pull in different directions, we usually suggest the width that suits the windows seen from the road. Our guide to plantation shutter louvre sizes has more on the trade-offs.

Frame style

A frame tucked inside the window recess shows off the casing and looks built in, as long as the recess is deep enough for the frame and for the slats to rotate. A frame fixed on the face of the wall covers a shallow recess or tired trim and can be set slightly wider than the glass, so folded panels rest against the wall. A plain, square frame edge suits cottages and newer houses; a softer, moulded edge suits colonial trim.

Larger Houses by the Water

The larger homes near the water have the biggest windows in town: tall living rooms with glass across one wall, sometimes with a second tier of windows above, and main bedrooms that look straight out over the bay.

For these rooms, a broad louvre and a clean frame are the usual starting point. Each window in a run gets its own shutter, made so the frames align and the slats run level from one end of the wall to the other. The upper tier, if there is one, takes shutters that are mostly left open for light and closed only when the sun drops low enough to shine straight in.

Bedrooms on the bright side are where a close fit matters most. The early or late light off the water can be intense, and panels that sit snugly in their frames keep the room dark until you are ready to open them.

Colonials off East Main Road

The newer colonials off East Main Road are the most straightforward houses on the island for shutters. Their windows are regular double-hung units, usually in matching sizes, across two floors. Openings are a fair depth and the trim is uniform.

The front windows are the place to start, since they are seen together from the road. Ordering them as a set in one louvre and one colour makes the house look finished. Bedrooms upstairs usually have two windows each; shutters on both, closed at night and open by day, make for a calm, private room. A family room open to the kitchen may have several windows and a glass door; the windows take shutters, and the door is planned alongside them.

Even in these houses, the bright-side, shaded-side split applies. A colonial with its back to the bay will have a much brighter rear than front, and the louvres on the two sides will be set differently through the day.

Odd Windows in Older Cottages

Cottages that have been added to and altered over the years often end up with windows that match nothing else in the house: a small square window in a bathroom, a narrow one beside the chimney, a pair from one era next to a single from another. Off-the-shelf products rarely fit any of them. Plantation shutters in Portsmouth, RI are made to each opening, however odd, which is why they suit cottage rooms so well.

The trick in a cottage full of mismatched windows is to make them look related. One slat width on every window, one colour throughout and one frame profile go a long way, even where the windows are all different sizes. Where two different windows sit on the same wall, we can often line up the tops of the frames so the wall looks planned. Low cottage ceilings help here, because the windows tend to finish at a similar height below the ceiling even when their bottoms vary, and a shared top line is what the eye notices first.

Where to Start in a Portsmouth House

Few households do every window in one go, and there is no need to. These are the usual first rooms.

• The bright-side living room, where glare off the bay is the daily problem.
• Bedrooms on the water side, for a dark room in the early light.
• Any room facing a near neighbour, which in a point cottage may be most of them.
• The front windows of a colonial, seen together from the road.

Later rooms can follow in the same slat and colour, so the house still looks as if it was done at once. Ordering plantation shutters in Portsmouth, RI this way lets you see how they work in the hardest room before deciding on the rest.

Living with Salt Air

Everywhere on the island is close to salt water, and the cottages at the points are closest of all. Salt drifts indoors on the breeze and leaves a faint haze on glass and sills. A shutter does not hold it the way a fabric treatment can, and a painted panel is easy to wipe down slat by slat with a barely damp cloth. It fits easily into cleaning the inside of the windows. Which shutter material suits a cottage right on the water is something we will discuss when we measure. Our page on coastal window treatments looks at the wider choice.

Sliding Doors on the Island

Many Portsmouth houses, cottages included, have a slider out to a deck, a patio or a strip of lawn by the water. Shutter panels on a slider would have to move fully clear every time the door is opened, and on a door used constantly that becomes a chore. A vertical blind that draws to one side is often the better partner for shuttered windows; see the Portsmouth vertical blinds page. Coloured to match, it sits comfortably beside the shutters. Where a door is used mainly as a window onto the view and only now and then as a way out, we can look at whether shutters would work on it after all.

The Order, Start to Finish

The store keeps in touch with you throughout, so you always know where things stand.

1. Phone the Swansea store or use the form, tell us the rooms and which side of the house each is on, and we arrange your free quote.
2. A specialist comes to the island and measures every window, noting depth, squareness, and what stands in front of each one.
3. We go through the bright side and the shaded side and how each room will be used.
4. You choose louvre width, frame and colour, at home or among the shutters on show in Swansea.
5. A written price follows for each window.
6. Every shutter is made for its own opening.
7. Our installers fit them, true each panel so it folds and closes neatly, and show you how to set the slats for each side of the house.

Colour, Wood and Drapes

White and near-white paint suit the island’s houses, from the smallest cottage to the largest house by the water. On the bright side, they keep strong light from feeling harsh; on the shaded side, they reflect what light there is. Trim in another colour can be matched.

A stained finish brings warmth to a study, a dining room or a bedroom on the shaded side of a larger house, especially with drapes at either side. Window Works sews drapes too, and Portsmouth custom drapes can be planned with the shutters, the rod set so fabric never catches a swinging panel.

Simple Upkeep

Every now and then, shut the slats and run a soft brush down each panel, reverse them and repeat. On the water side, add the damp-cloth wipe whenever the glass is cleaned. Keep stained shutters dry. If something loosens after years of use, the store is a phone call away.

Across the Bridges in Swansea

Window Works opened in Swansea, Massachusetts in 1988 and is still a family store, now with the second generation in charge. Its specialists have spent over 37 years measuring and fitting window treatments from the SouthCoast through the Rhode Island East Bay, island houses among them.

• Window treatment specialists with long experience
• A visit to your Portsmouth house to measure before anything is ordered
• Shutters fitted by the store’s own installers
• Contact kept up with you until every panel is right
• Warranties available on what we sell

At the showroom you can fold panels, angle the slats, compare widths and look over Norman shutters.

Visit the showroom

Every shutter style is explained on plantation shutters, and our other services on the island are listed on Portsmouth window treatments.

Book a Free Quote

Every order starts with a free quote. Use the call button to reach the Swansea store and arrange a measuring visit on the island or ask about fitting, or send the form and we will answer. If you would like to see the shutters before anyone comes out, the showroom is open to visitors, and the contact page gives the route. Window Works holds a 5.0 rating on Google.