don't know if this helps, but I once saw a shelf made out of old shutters. This wasn't one of the new shelf things made to look like shutters , but an actual pair of very old and worn shutters. The shelves were just boards slipped between the slats of the two shutters, if you can envision what I mean. It was very unique and cute.

ack! burn them? heavens no! find something to do with them! I saw some christmas card holders made from old shutters---
http://www.craftown.com/xmas/craft11.htm
or re-paint and distress them and use as a screen, or put them on an interior door with a backing to use as a bill or mail organizer. I would love to find some!

Here is a link that might be useful: card shutters

heres some more ideas...

Here is a link that might be useful: recycle shutters

heres a nice bulletin board. Ok I think Im done now. :0).

Here is a link that might be useful: bulletin board

Hello, don't give up you will think of something.

At the shutter recycle: I especially liked the idea for putting them inside at a picture window.

Vangy likes to do more than play in the dirt

You could attach one (sideways) to the bottom of a shelf the same size (60") and use it as a valance over a window?

Should have read 50", not 60.

Nothing wrong with using a couple cans of high gloss spray paint either! Nothing says "cottage" more than a nice glossy white paint.

How about a head board?

Here's what I did. I used a board cut to fit and painted to match in the middle to make it wide enough for our king size bed.

{{!gwi}}

~Sandy~

I have a weird idea.........how about getting them painted really good with a oil base paint(waterproofing them) and making a water feature with them? Have the shutter angle so that the water trickles down the shutters? Maybe make a box to set them in in an angle?
Just today I saw a decorating show where they made a water feature in a coffee table. Hope I can describe it.......but it was a wood frame, with a tiled and sealed piece of wood angled inside. The water ran down from the upper part of the slant from a puntured copper tube and ran down the tiles and the water was collected in a trough at the bottom of the tiled slant....and then it was sent back up underneath to the copper tube. Maybe instead of the tiled, slanted wood, you could use these shutters if painted well to hold up under the water flow!
Just an idea.....Julie

How about use them outside as a trellis...

HOW EXCITING! You get to go on a new adventure that you hadn't planned for.

I offer you this idea:

Lighted Pedestal with a shelf on top

You could cut the shutters in half.

Paint with a good quality base coat and paint. Have fun with colors or paint it just one color.(For instance, Paint each of the four sides a different color or alternate colors between the sides.) And remember, if one idea doesn't make it pop. Then paint over that! Thomas Edison made over 1,000 light bulbs that didn't work. He said he'd just found 1,000 ways how NOT to make a light bulb.

Screwing the four pieces into a square base is probably the easiest way for this type of project. And it's probably a good idea to predrill your holes, as most shutters are made of soft woods and split easily. This will create a more finished look for you.

Make the top with another piece of wood or GLASS. OR find a neat finial or something quirky (gargoyles, garden elf, or such) to be your top piece. This can be an outdoor or indoor pedestal. WOW, this can even look good enough to greet guests at your door.

BE SURE attach the top piece securely. Perhaps you can have a piece of glass, acrylic, plexiglass cut to fit inside the "framework" of the top of the pedestal. Perhaps Gorilla Glue or some other strong adhesive.

AND this is the part that will make your husband think that YOU are "the best thing since sliced bread":

Put a small lamp or light base of some sort inside the shutter pedestal.

Or use the ubiquitous always available and inexpensive string of "Christmas Tree/Fairy Lights".

To do some type of lightiing wire "containment", you can use cup hooks (rubber coated, if available. Otherwise, any will do.) inside the pedestal to guide and support the wire(s). You would have access to the light by lifting the pedestal up. Then the lights stay in place because you've supported them.

VIOLA! LOOK, it's a lighted display pedestal! The light could ease through the slats. This would make it a fun night light or some possibilty like that.

Put a plant or art piece or colored paper on top the glass for some fun shadow effects!

Have fun.

Bliss and Blessings to you,

Tiggernickel

P.S. If you do use fairy lights, you could use all clear or various colors to invigorate or relax you. Or any color of light bulb for a more standard base.

HAVE FUN with it, whatever you do. I KNOW YOU WILL COME UP WITH SOMETHING so that you and your husband can have a good time with the curve ball you were tossed! And fun memories to go with it. "My wife made the coooooolest thing out of these funky shutters. Wow, who'd have thought those shutters would ever look this great?!?"

I have some shutters that I put easel type picture frames through the slats of the shutters to display family photos.

In the recent Martha Stewart she used them as a message centre at home using the slots to put papers, it looks really nice.

Don't throw them out! There are a lot of uses for them. Get a couple of older ladders and use the shutters as shelves to make a ladder/shelf plantstand.

Sue

dont through them out and dont liston to your husband... put them on the wall in family room or living room and use as pictures frames or different doyles or something would fit in it....

My son made a Bar for me out of old double shutters, he used two for the front and one for the sides with a couple of shelves in the back. He used our old fireplace Mantel from the lake house for a top .Turned out nice and shabby.