What decides the price of your plantation shutters

Material: the biggest single lever

Engineered MDF ranges sit at the entry point and are a genuinely good product in a dry bedroom, study or hallway. Poplar hardwood costs more because it is lighter and stiffer across a tall panel, which matters on anything above head height. ABS waterproof ranges cost more again and are the only sensible choice directly above a bath, in a wet room or a steamed-up kitchen window.

None of these is a compromise material dressed up as a budget one. Each is the right answer for a specific set of conditions, and part of the home visit is matching the material to the room rather than upselling the most expensive option regardless of where it is going.

Louvre size: 47mm, 63mm, 76mm and 89mm

Louvre width changes the character of the finished shutter more than it changes the invoice. 47mm suits small period panes and cottage windows where a chunky louvre would look out of scale. 63mm is a versatile mid-size for most bedroom and landing windows.

76mm is our most requested size across Kent because it gives a clean, contemporary look and lets more light through when open. 89mm is reserved for larger openings and picture windows, where a wide louvre keeps the view outside as uninterrupted as possible when the shutter is fully open.

Panel count matters more than total width

Two houses with the same total window width can price very differently depending on how many panels that width is split into. A single wide window taking two full-height panels is more economical per square metre than the same area broken into four narrow panels around a bay, because each panel is its own frame, hinge set and hanging point.

• Fewer, wider panels generally cost less than many narrow ones for the same glass area
• Out-of-square reveals need a compensating frame, which adds material and survey time
• Tier-on-tier effectively builds two shutters into one frame, so it costs more than full height
• Café style dresses only the lower half and is usually the most affordable configuration

Hinges and hanging hardware

The frame and louvres get most of the attention, but the hinges are what a shutter lives or dies on after a few years of daily use. A heavier hardwood panel needs a hinge rated for that weight, set into a reinforced frame edge, or the panel will eventually drop and drag against the sill. Cheaper hinge sets are one of the ways a very low quote is sometimes reached, and it is worth asking specifically what hardware is included rather than assuming it is the same across every quote you compare.

Magnetic catches and cabinet-style closures at the meeting rail are a small additional cost that stops panels swinging in a draught, which matters more on first floor bedrooms and stairwells than it does on a sheltered ground floor window.

Extras that add to the panel price

Hidden tilt rods keep the front face of the louvre clean and are the most requested upgrade. RAL colour matching lets a shutter disappear into a painted reveal rather than sit as stark white against it. Motorised louvre control is available for hard-to-reach or very tall windows and is priced per panel rather than per window.

Period cottages versus new build estates

A Hythe cottage with a shallow, uneven Victorian reveal usually needs a compensating frame and smaller panels to suit narrow original openings, which nudges the price per square metre up even though the total glass area is modest. A new build in Ashford, by contrast, tends to have square, consistent openings across the whole house, which lets us quote several identical windows at once and often brings the average cost per window down through simpler, repeatable framing.

Neither situation is better or worse value, they are just different jobs, and it is worth knowing which category your house falls into before comparing a friend's quote against your own.

How this fits with our main cost guide

If you want the process side of pricing, the written quote, and why we measure before we quote rather than the other way round, that is covered fully in our shutters cost guide. This page is deliberately the product side of the same conversation.