Shutters, blinds or curtains, judged over fifteen years

How each option ages

Shutters are joinery. Once they are hung and adjusted, the ongoing cost is a damp cloth. They carry a lifetime product guarantee, they do not fade like fabric, and they stay with the house when it sells.

Blinds are excellent value and can be replaced room by room as taste changes, but a fabric in a south facing Kent window will show its age in five to ten years. Curtains need cleaning, poles, linings and space either side of the window, and in a small room they cost you floor area as well as money.

• Shutters: highest day one cost, lowest running cost, lifetime product guarantee.
• Blinds: lowest day one cost, one or two replacement cycles across fifteen years.
• Curtains: middling cost, recurring cleaning, most affected by sun fade and pets.

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.