We sat down with renowned interior stylist Emily Blunden on the set of our latest Shutterly Fabulous shoot, and found out everything you need to know about styling your home with shutters.
With so much variety on offer, there’s a multitude of ways to incorporate different shutter designs into your interior scheme – no matter what style you’re after.
Sometimes though, we could all do with a little bit of guidance from the experts. We sat down with renowned interior stylist Emily Blunden on the set of our latest Shutterly Fabulous shoot, and found out everything you need to know about styling your home with shutters.
How should you integrate your shutters into your interior scheme? Are there any tips or things to look out for when choosing the right shutter for your home?
“Shutters are such a great way to compliment your space. Window treatments can be quite a large feature in some properties – often filling much of one wall – so you need to carefully consider your chosen shade and design. My main piece of advice would be to ask yourself ‘what look am I going for?’ Are you aiming for a contemporary or a more traditional look? Ultimately, this will help you decide the style of the shutter and the tonal palette scheme in the room. Stop and consider how much colour you already have in the room, and whether you want the shutters to introduce a new shade or complement an existing colour in the room. Try to spend some time, at different times of the day (because of the light changes) to imagine what your shutters will look like. Be as objective as you can, imagine different colours and styles, even if you’ve already discounted them as you can often be surprised at what works. My final piece of advice would be that if you’re planning on installing shutters, ensure you’ve got the right measurements. Fortunately, working with a company such as Shutterly Fabulous means this is never a worry or a problem – they take all the measurements for you, and with years of experience there’s very little – if anything – to worry about!”
Take us through each of the following shots and how each one was achieved and thought out in terms of styling:
Block Colour
“Considering this is the same type of shutter in both shots, the rooms are very different in style – illustrating just how versatile the product is! With block colours, you’re afforded the opportunity to use complimentary shades (like in the Blue Living Room, left) or perhaps go for a real impact by introducing a contrasting shade into the room. The interplay of furnishings in both shots show how to cleverly integrate your shutters into the design of the room, using similar-coloured accessories to create a harmonious and co-ordinated scheme.”
Extra Wide Slats
“An excellent shutter style for a large room – these slats are an ideal choice because they highlight the volume of space. Furthermore, Extra Wide Slats can work in a contemporary or traditional space – meaning that if you decide to change the ‘look’ of your room in the future, you won’t need to install a wholly new window treatment. The subtle shades used in the above spaces introduce a nice light, but don’t command the attention from the rest of the room – particularly good for balancing out dark furniture or bold patterns.”
Solid Shutters – The Ombré Trend
“This floor-length solid shutter in graduated colours is a very exciting and bold look for a room – and right on trend for 2015. But think carefully about the rest of your furnishings – stick to a limited colour range so the entire scheme doesn’t become too convoluted or over-bearing. It’s also worth considering having an item that is as dark as your darkest shutter colour, just to give the room visual ‘balance’.” Pastel Shades“As I’ve mentioned before, shutters are an excellent way to inject a pop of colour in a room. I wanted this to be fun and fresh: a nod to the past (solid shutters are the more traditional style of shutter, popular in period properties) whilst being undoubtedly modern. The shutters bring most of the room’s style with the props just playing soft supporting roles. It has a delicate femininity without frills, but is age neutral and very easy to achieve.”
Natural Finishes
“If you want your window treatment to be more ageless and classic, but bringing some warmth into your room, then wood is always a good option. Natural finishes around the home have been huge in the past year, and it only looks set to continue. Much more flexible for accompanying furnishing choices, a wooden shutter allows you to change your sofa, walls or flooring whilst your shutters remain seamlessly up-to-date. The props here are Scandi-inspired – so think clean shapes in simple colours, and relatively pattern-free.”
Monochrome
“For a full-on, contemporary style, this is a timeless monochrome look that will never go out of fashion. Make sure you have plenty of natural daylight and a pale scheme to balance out the darkness of the black. The unadorned walls make the shutters a main feature in the room, with a pale sofa and a collection of monochrome accessories finishing the look.”