Cost guide

Shutters, blinds or curtains, judged over fifteen years

Day one price is the wrong number to compare. A window treatment is a fifteen year decision in most homes, and the three options age in completely different ways: one is furniture, one is a consumable, and one is textile that lives or dies by how often it can be washed.

For the record, we do not sell curtains. We are including them here because customers ask, and an honest comparison is more useful than a sales pitch.

Cost guide: Shutters, blinds or curtains, judged over fifteen years in an East Kent home, fitted by Homestyle Blinds & Shutters

How each option ages

Shutters are joinery. Once they are hung and adjusted, routine care is straightforward, and selected ranges carry a lifetime product guarantee.

Blinds are excellent value and can be replaced room by room as taste changes. Curtains need cleaning, poles, linings and space either side of the window, although we do not sell them.

  • Shutters: higher initial cost, with a lifetime product guarantee on selected ranges.
  • Blinds: lower initial cost and a wide choice of finishes.
  • Curtains: require cleaning, poles and space beside the window; we do not sell them.

The bits people forget to count

Fading is the quiet cost. Coastal light in Hythe, Dymchurch and Folkestone is brighter than inland Kent, and a cheap fabric on a seafront elevation can look tired inside three summers. A painted or ABS shutter simply does not do that.

Then there is heat. A closed shutter or a thermal lined blind slows heat loss on a cold night and cuts solar gain on a hot afternoon, which shows up on the bills rather than the invoice.

Where we would spend the money

Front elevation and living room: shutters, because they are seen from the street and used every day. Bedrooms: blackout blinds or shutters, depending on whether you want the light gone or the room dressed. Kitchen, utility and rentals: blinds, every time.

That mix is what most of our Kent customers end up with once the samples are on the sill, and it is the advice we give at the free home consultation whether it suits our order book or not.

Cost guide - your questions

Estate agents in Hythe and Folkestone consistently tell our customers that fitted shutters photograph well and stay with the property, which is not something a curtain pole does.

No. Homestyle fits blinds, shutters, Luxaflex products and Blind Screens only. If curtains are genuinely the right answer for your window we will say so.

A closed shutter with a good frame seal, or a honeycomb style Luxaflex blind that traps a layer of still air. Both outperform a single unlined fabric blind by a wide margin.

Often the best answer. Shutters on the main window and a blackout roller on the smaller side window is a very common Kent solution.

Talk it through against your own windows

Bring us the room and we will tell you honestly which of the two products we sell belongs in it. Free home consultation, expert measuring, written quote.