Funny that you should post asking what I did, since I JUST made up my mind and ordered something! Takes me a while on this stuff lol! As much as I love shutters, I ended up ordering blinds. I got real wood since the natural stone and high graining of the wood floors in my house just did not mesh - in my mind anyhow - with white shutters or blinds and the faux woods I looked at did not hold a candle to the real wood ones I found. They are very unique - Levelor 2 1/2 inch slats in a collection they call the "Estate Collection". I got the color they call "Estate Oak". They are the right tone of stain but what they bring to the mix that is unusual is that they look distressed - flecks of black and lots of variation in the stain so it looks like old wood. LOVE them. Now I cannot say how well they will hold up regarding warpage and such, but have come to the conclusion that NOTHING is a perfect choice in spite of my deep desire for that to be. I got them through StevesBlindsandWallpaper.com. First I ordered the smallest blind for this room with the idea that if I didnt care for it, I could use it on window of the same size in the back room. I did like them, however, so ordered the rest and they will be here in about a week. Steves was really good to deal with. There were some slats that had a tiny amount of sway to them - not at all noticable when the blind was closed but slightlly noticable when it was open - probably only to someone like me. Anyhow, I told them about it - not really complaining but just sort of asking if that was to be expected as I knew I had to order four more blinds that were much larger. They contacted Levelor and Levelor is sending me an entire new blind and not even requiring that I send this one back! I will move this one to the back room, and order one more like it for the other window back there! Excellent experience with them! The other online source that had a good price was Blindsexpress.com. I ordered from Steves instead as they seemed able to get the order to me sooner. After the experience with customer service at Steves, I am glad I did, altho I cannot say that BlindsExpress would have done less. They very well may have been just as helpful, and to be fair, they had the best price up front. Steves just matched them when I brought that to their attention. If you are open to doing a DIY installation of Shutters, I found great prices on shutters online at a store called Theshutterstore.com. They offer all sorts of shutters - stained, painted, real wood and faux. Before I finally ordered my blinds I was leaning very hard toward doing stained shutters in here and the price was not that much more than the blinds. I did blinds mostly because I already had white trim, crown molding and such in here and could not 'see' the stained shutters knitting easily with that. If I could have come up with a design solution, I might have done the shutters as that was the main thing I was struggling with. Given that I found blinds with such character, I think I will be happy. Plus, with blinds, I can pull them all the way up to see my very pretty view. The wall space around my windows would have been tight if I had wanted to open the shutters. I am considering doing the shutters in my bedroom, however, since a white of some shade will go well in there. Plus, TheShutterStore.com offeres a privacy slat that would really block out light. I do question the idea of having shutters only in that room, however. Is it odd to have blinds in the other rooms and shutters in that one? Anyone have an opinion on that to share? I hope you are able to make a choice that brings you peace. I really like the blinds I chose, but as I said, cannot be sure that they wont sway or warp eventually. I got the 'no holes' option - meaning that the slats just are lying in there and not with strings running through them. I figure if a slat gets a sway in it, I will flip it over and let it 'sway' back the other way lol! I think I made the right choice for me.

Check with your shutter company. Shutters typically are custom made, and as such, they can be painted any color you want. They painted our shutters they same color as our trim.

Stick with a bright white shutter, it works with every color. Your louver size should be 3 1/2 and you will need a cut out for the door handle. As for the frame, stick with an inside mount frame that will overlap the edges (typically called a Z frame) unless you have tilt in windows. You can give up the tilt in feature if you want an inside mount frame but make sure you can remove your screens without having to tilt the window in. You can get an ebook that talks about all aspects of shutters in this blog post Beauty of Shutters. You can also enter to win a free shutter on this facebook page at free shutter. Personally I would prefer a white trim in the home but even with the monochrome look I would go with a bright white shutter. From what I can tell from your picture it looks like the house has a very clean look which would make me recommend a hidden tilt, that is what is on these shutters. You don't see the traditional tilt rod on the front. You will notice the shutter by the bed is closed on the bottom and open on the top. This is what is called a split tilt. It will allow you to open the top for light but leave the bottom closed for privacy while maintaining a uniform look on the shutter panels. This can also be done with a divider rail but it will divide the top and bottom like in the picture below and you see the rail in the middle. It looks like you have a very nice home and I am sure it will all look great! Good luck!

Hi Brittany i’m curious about what you decided on your shutter color i painted my walls with a light gray and used a dark gray trim My rooms are large with high celings so there is plenty of light i am considering having my shutters dipped in a white with a gray understone i’m getting a sample of a shutter in that color next week i’m sticking with white but the color white that I currently have will not work with gray so my shutters will need to change or else I’ll have to go back to white trim Just curious with what you did Thanks!