I just recently shared our Outdoor Deck Reveal with you last week and mentioned that we made these Board and Batten Shutters. Today I am sharing our DIY Shutter Tutorial so that you can make some too if you are interested. They are unbelievably easy. If you are looking for an easy, first time building project, this would be a perfect one to start with.
I literally made these shutters in less than one hour. And I did it at night, right after getting the littles in bed which is why my pictures are kind-of blue-ish in tint do to low light conditions.
I picked up 6 cedar fence planks from Lowes. They were each 5 feet in length. I measured my window and determined that it was 36.5 inches including the white window casing and inside of the window frame. You want your shutters to be the same height as your window frame.
I wanted to have three planks side by side for the width of my shutters and then I wanted 2 strips to lay horizontally along the top and bottom of the shutters.
I cut 6 vertical strips each measuring 36.5 inches in length. I laid three strips together and measured the width where I wanted the horizontal strips as the wood can vary slightly. Cut 4 strips…mine were all about 11.5 inches give and take a bit.
Then I simply glued the horizontal strips of cedar 5 inches from the top and bottom of the shutter. Then added some staples with my nail gun in 6 places on each strip…one staple at the top and bottom for each board.
You can stain or paint your shutters. I wanted mine white. I used some Outdoor Solid Color Waterproofing Wood Stain in a white color base. This stuff is great and we used it to seal and paint our white posts on our Outdoor deck. It holds up and protects from the elements much better than an outdoor paint will.
Then you will need to hang your shutters. We decided NOT to drill the shutters into our brick. Now the reason we decided this was that we are not sure we want shutters on our whole house. We have several windows and that we be a big undertaking AND several of our windows are really high. And since our porch is well protected by the side wall and the roof we rarely get wind or the elements any where near the window. So we knew we could get away with using these handy dandy Brick Hangers.
They don’t look like much. But they really do work well. I picked them up in the nail and picture hanger aisle at Lowes. We finagled them a bit and drilled them right into the back of the shutter after determining where to place them so that they would line up correctly with the grooves in the brick mortar.
It ended up working out pretty good. Now the only thing I have to worry about is if we have another freak 100 mph windstorm again. If we do, you can bet I will go out there and pull those babies down along with everything else on my back porch.
These shutters cost very little to make and I LOVE the added impact they give the deck. The brick wall was a bit expansive and needed to be broken up a bit and I am happy with the way that they seem to finish off the entire space! Yay for last minute projects that are fast and easy.
To see the entire deck reveal go here: Outdoor Deck Reveal
On a side note–We are in full swing Spring Break here and we decided to have a stay-cation at home since our weather was supposed to be fairly nice. Well it rained yesterday and I let the kids built a blanket fort (against my better judgment). Then they begged to sleep in it…which I allowed (against my better judgment) but it we were enjoying a stay-cation. And today I am dealing with cranky, over-tired kids…(sigh)!
Here is hoping the rest of the day runs smoother than our morning did! Now we are headed out to play some more, now that the weather has cleared up! Do any of you have any great stay-cation ideas for us? We came up with a fun list but would love more suggestions!
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jen @ Tatertots & Jello says
Amazing Amy! I pinned them :)
xoxo
Melanie says
These look really great; think they’d work on ugly Arizona stucco? ;) I was just complaining to my husband that I think if we buy a house here we’d be stuck with boring exterior windows. I’m such a whiner sometimes!
And I always regret letting my girls do anything different than their normal bedtime routine. Cranky kids = cranky mommy.
Debra says
Take them SWIMMING! Always tires them right out plus they love it.
Amanda Padgett says
These are great and look pretty easy to make. I need simple DIY for my craft-challenged self. ;-)
Capturing Joy with Kristen Duke says
I’ve been meaning to make some shutters, thanks for the simple tutorial!
Cindy Hopper says
Great Job! Your deck looks amazing.
Amy says
Thanks so much Cindy! xo
Hi there! This article could not be written any better!
Looking at this article reminds me of my previous roommate!
He always kept talking about this. I’ll send this information to him.
Pretty sure he’s going to have a very good read. I appreciate you
for sharing!
I love simple. And so often it’s just the right thing. They look wonderful. I love shutter flanked windows :)))
Thank you so much Shannon! What a sweet comment! I like simple too!
Thank you for the tutorial!! They seem really easy to make too! I was wondering what type of saw you used to cut the planks with?
Jasmine- It is best to trim the shutters with a stationary power saw, like a power miter saw, a table saw or a radial arm saw, because it is difficult to make accurate cuts with a hand saw