How to make a shutter yourself

If you also love shutters in your interior design, but have difficulty finding the old ones, you can make them yourself. We give you a guide on how to do it here. Use the shutters as decoration, or make doors. Find inspiration for making cabinets from shutters right here.

Find the finished measurement you need and make a sketch. Think about how powerful you make us appear. Thin materials give lightness, strong ones give heaviness. We have chosen the following dimensions. HEIGHT X WIDTH X THICKNESS. 100 x 50 x 4 cm. Frame wood: 4 x 2,5 cm, slats 6 x 1 cm. Cut the frame wood into the right lengths and screw them together at the corners. Remember to drill with a small drill, so the wood does not split so easily. Fix it on a plate, check the measurements and that it is at an angle. Use screw clamps, screws, tape or whatever you have on hand. The plate must ensure that the finished shutter maintains its shape and size during production, and must be removed again when you are finished. Then measure the inside width. Then you have the length of the slats. You get the number by measuring the internal height (100 – 5), dividing by the width of the frame wood (4 cm) and adding 25%. Then you get the slats to overlap. Without overlap of the slats, the shutter becomes transparent.

Then you cut out the number of slats. The more similar they are in length, the easier it is to get a nice result. Then you drive a small pin (small nail in, without head) into the ends of all the slats, 0,5 cm from the leading edge. That should help you in a bit. Then it's back to the frame. Make a mark on the sides of the frame, the distance must be the thickness of the frame (4 cm.) Saw a small notch with a plane in each mark. Now you are ready to glue the slats in. Lay all your slats down in place in the frame. At the bottom, the lamella is on the plate, and at the top, the small pins are in each notch. The last slat may require some adjustment. Then you put a small joint in each corner between the frame and the slat. Use acrylic sealant or assembly glue. When all the grout has dried completely, you can pull out all the little pins again. Then you remove the plate again, and you now have your homemade shutter.

Now it's time to sandpaper and paint. If you want to be a complete perfectionist, you can choose the slatted strips with a slanted edge, so they lie flat against the plate. We have done that. The color we used is Vintage paint "Antique green", after which we sanded with sandpaper.