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Types of shutters
The type follows the window, not the catalogue. Indoors or out, salt band or sheltered, sash or stacker door: each opening points at one of three types. Here is the whole range, and how we decide.
| Your window | The type | The material | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| Living rooms, bedrooms, most indoor glass | Plantation | basswood PVC | Light and privacy tuned blade by blade; the timber look where it belongs. |
| Bathrooms, ensuites, laundries | Plantation | PVC | Steam doesn't argue with PVC. Hidden tilt wipes clean. |
| Balconies, alfresco, anything in the salt band | Aluminium | powder-coated aluminium | Salt air pits cheap fittings. Powder-coat and stainless pivots don't flinch. |
| Street-facing glass, storm side, shopfronts | Roller | aluminium slat curtain | Security, storm and shade in one closing curtain. |
The highlighted row is the one Newcastle gets wrong most often: timber fitted where only aluminium or PVC survives.
Plantation shutters
The interior workhorse: basswood in the dry rooms, PVC in the wet ones.
Hinged panels of tilting louvres, fitted inside your window reveal or across the face of the frame. Louvre width sets the character (63, 89 or 114 mm), the tilt mechanism sets the look (front tilt for period sashes, hidden tilt for a clean blade line), and the frame makes an out-of-square reveal read straight.
This is the deepest page on the site, because it carries the most decisions: material by room, blade width, tilt, frames, and how bi-fold and bypass panels cover wide openings.
Plantation, specified →
Aluminium shutters
Outside, and anywhere the salt reaches. You're two streets from the break? This one.
Powder-coated aluminium blades on stainless pivots, built for balconies, alfresco openings and weather-facing glass. In a city where the surf is a short walk from whole suburbs, this is not the upgrade, it is the correct spec: salt air pits cheap fittings and swells timber, and no finish argues with it as well as powder-coat.
Aluminium, specified →Roller shutters
The practical end of the range: a curtain that closes, locks and insulates.
An interlocking aluminium slat curtain running in side guides, rolling into a compact box above the glass. It is the type you spec for security on street-facing windows, for storm season on exposed elevations, and for shopfronts and garages that need to shut properly overnight. Closed, it also blocks summer heat and street noise better than anything else on this page.
Roller, specified →
Not sure which type is yours?
Draft your window schedule and see the verdicts.
Add your windows room by room and the schedule specs each one: type, material and a drawn note, in plain terms. Bring it to your free measure and we will confirm every figure on site.
Free in-home measure & quote
Every window is bespoke. The quote starts at your place, not ours.
A specialist measures each opening, talks through material, louvre width and tilt for your rooms and your exposure, and leaves you a written quote. Nothing is made until the figures are checked on site.
Form only. We reply to arrange a time that suits.