Do you have one of these beauties in your house? We sure do, and as you can kind of tell it's fairly massive. I absolutely love the amount of light that it lets in, but it faces directly west, and in the afternoon the sun beams through it making the living room a little too warm (in the summer). We also have a cut out in the wall opposite this one, so that you can see through from the kitchen to the living room... and a view out to the street. But in the late afternoon, that sun coming through hits you right in the eye as you're starting to make dinner, forcing one to wear sunglasses while cooking!
So after a few other projects had been wrapped up, my next project was to figure out what to do to cover this window when necessary. I called up one of those window treatment places - can't remember the name - figuring they would have the biggest assortment of options, even though it might cost us an arm and a leg.
The guy came out, took a few measurements. I explained to him that I wanted something that wasn't fixed! I wanted to be able to have light coming in through the windows or have it closed off when the mood struck. He called back a few days later to inform me that he had 2 options. Both were fixed!!!! And the cheapest was going to run a few thousand dollars!!!! Wha???? If I wanted it permanently closed off I could hang a blue tarp across the thing for a couple bucks, but that wasn't what I wanted!!! What's the point of having this window if it's never going to let light in?
So, although I tried to unload this project onto someone else, I was back creating something myself. I dreamed up the idea of creating a shutter. It would have to fold up some, like an accordion, otherwise the "open window" version would lease a huge shutter extending out over one's head while the sat on the couch, and would also put a lot of strain on a hinge. Luckily for me the window is a perfect 1/4 circle. What this means is that I only needed to measure the width of the opening at the bottom to know how to cut the pieces I would use.
This picture shows you how I measured the window.
Then I had to figure out how to cut the pieces I needed with that measurement in mind. I went down to our Home Depot and picked up 4 sheets of 1/2-inch plywood, measuring 2x4 feet. I supposed I could have grabbed 2 4x8 sheets, and they probably would have been a little cheaper, but a 4x8 is super hard to fit in a crossover SUV, and a huge pain in the butt to make cuts on. It's just huge and awkward. So I picked up the smaller ones. Then I cut each of them in 1/2 so I now had 4 strips that were 1x4 feet. You want a really straight cut, so a table saw is the best way to go for that. At this time I didn't have my table saw yet, so I just marked a straight line, and used my circular saw... and held my breath the whole time I was cutting... because you know you get straighter cuts when you hold your breath and cut off the oxygen supply to your brain. ;)
Then I laid out the 4 pieces (per window on the ground). I left approximately 1/4 inch space between each of them. You're going to need to attach a hinge between each one. The hinge will take up some room, so account for this now. Otherwise you'll end up with a shutter that is too big for you window. With the pieces laid out, I drove a big nail into the ground at the bottom/inner corner. In the picture (above), it's kind of hard to see, but on the bottom left corner you can see a red dot. Imagine that was my nail. This nail will be in contact with that corner of the wood. Now take a piece of string, and tie it to the nail, and then tie a pencil to the other end - making sure the length of string between the pencil and the nail is the "x" length of the window. We've essentially created a large scale compass (remember those from math class?). Draw a line across each piece of wood to mark where cuts need to be made for this 1/4 circle shutter.
Using a jigsaw I made the cuts. I then sanded down the edges some, and applied a piece of trim framing each piece. You don't have to add the trim, but the shutter looked kind of bland without it. And unless you have some way to steam your wood so it will bend, go grab some of that cheapo rectangular trim that's supposed to look like wood - but is really some plastic composite stuff, because it's nice and bendy.
With your pieces all ready to go, attach each one together using piano hinges. I guess these are more properly known as "continuous hinges". I found that I had to use my hacksaw to cut the hinge for the last piece, because the hinge was simply too long. Also, make sure that as you attach your hinges, you're alternating the hinge from front to back. If you put all the hinges on the side facing toward the window, it won't fold up like an accordion, and same is true if you put them all on the side facing into the room.
You can see here, with this back view of mine, that I put the first and last hinges facing towards the window, and the middle hinge faces out into the room. If you want your shutters to be white and you don't want the hinges to stand out, you'll want to spray them down with some Krylon or Rustoleum first so they match whatever color you're painting the shutter.
With the hinges put together, and your shutter painted, you're ready to install it. I used 2 of these hinges that look a little like butterflies. They were plenty strong for this project, and they have the added bonus of folding up tighter than other door hinges would. They're referred to as "non-mortise hinges" because you haven't used a chisel to hollow out an area (mortise) for the side of the hinge to nestle into. You may want some help for this part of the project as it's pretty tough to screw these in while also holding up the shutter. Trust me, I did the first one by myself and then waited around for help with the second one so I didn't grind my teeth off... or burst a blood vessel in my face from frustration.
Now that you've got them up, test them out!! It's amazing what a difference it makes. It was certainly a lot cheaper than what that window blind guy wanted to charge me, and I got exactly what I was looking for!
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