Since early 2020, we’ve talked to more people about shutter ideas than ever before. It’s hardly surprising – the last few years have seen millions of people seriously reconsider their living space.

For some, the lines between living and working space have become blurred. For others, the home has become a sanctuary where rest and recuperation is more important than ever before.

Here, we’ve looked at a huge range of interesting and innovative ways people have been renovating their homes – many including wooden shutters.

You might decide that this is just the kind of inspiration you need to reinvigorate your space – then again, you might instead overhaul your home with a view to cashing in on the booming property market.

Renovation vs relocation – the choice is yours!

Top home renovation ideas for 2022

best renovation ideas

According to Country Living magazine, new research suggests that 69% of people in the UK are planning home improvements in 2022.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, getting the masking tape and dust sheets out for some general touch-ups or redecoration is top of people’s list of renovation projects – but a colour refresh isn’t the only thing that people are planning. Other ideas include:

  • Fitting new flooring/carpets 
  • Fitting a new bathroom 
  • Fitting a new kitchen 
  • Building an extension 
  • Creating a cabin or extra room in the garden 
  • Converting a loft 
  • Creating an office 
  • Knocking through rooms to create more open space 
  • Converting a garage

Expanding your living space

Expanding the usable footprint of your home doesn’t necessarily mean bringing the builders in.

Garden and outdoor spaces

The UK’s first COVID-19 lockdown came at the beginning of spring 2020 – a time when people would have ordinarily been putting away their scarves and gloves and starting to enjoy the first rays of spring sunshine.

As such, all lockdown eyes turned to garden space. Patio furniture flew off the shelves, and even the most humble backyard spaces started to be transformed to offer some much-needed fresh air.

Fast-forward to 2022, and our love of outside spaces is still going strong – especially those that can stand up to some weather damage!

When twinned with outdoor furniture, lawns, decking, and patio areas can really transform the way a property feels – especially when you can effortlessly move between inside and out.

gardens and outdoors space

Connecting home and garden

garden home connection

Although almost all garden space is wonderful, it becomes a real luxury when you can easily step from your kitchen or living room with morning coffees or some evening tapas and a glass of wine.

This is where new French doors or sliding patio windows come into their own.

Not only do they bring natural light flooding into your home – they give a real connected feel between inside and outside space. Evening dining or entertaining inside your home feels different when doors are open, birds are singing, and the cool evening air is circulating.

Of course, almost all UK homes are overlooked – either by neighbouring properties or nearby roads and pavements – so sliding plantation shutters for patio doors are a stunning way to add privacy without compromising daylight.

Garden renovations are a beautiful start to opening up your home – but if you want to turn things up a notch, patio doors and interior shutters take the look to a stunning next level.

Repurposing your rooms

While building work probably feels like the most extreme kind of home renovation, there are actually plenty of serious changes you can make to your home without going anywhere near planning permission or the upheaval of construction.

Why not look at completely repurposing a room?

If you can’t remember the last time you all sat down to a family dinner or you’ve got a conservatory with an exercise bike that’s currently doubling as a clothes airer – you’ve probably got space that’s rarely (or never) used.

room repurposing

So, consider creating an entirely new room right here.

plantation room divider shutters

If you like to stay on top of life admin, then maybe a dedicated office would work for you. Then again, if you’d like to flush life admin from your mind for a while – a peaceful area that works for mindfulness, yoga, or just quiet reading might be just the ticket.

There are countless hobbies and interests that you might decide deserve space outside of the normal cupboard they live in. Would express your artistic side with painting, drawing, or creative equipment area work for you? Or maybe that rarely-used spare bedroom could become a playroom for kids or grandkids?

If it’s not practical to repurpose an entire room, then using plantation shutters as room dividers mean you can use part of an existing room without having to commit to new walls or fixed-use spaces.

Redecorate and refresh

It might be ’90s fashion that’s making a comeback in the high street – but it’s the colours and styles of the ’70s that are going to be big in interior design this year.

Thankfully, both these trends are contemporary twists on original looks – so there’s no sign that we’ll have avocado bathroom suites or eye-watering wallpaper patterns to worry about.

Instead, touches of bold orange and green colours will be popular accents to warm neutral tones or a white backdrop – along with more relaxed, comfortable furnishings.

Another stand-out difference will be light. While heavy curtains were popular when the ’70s style was first around, today, a lighter and brighter look will be popular.

This makes window shutters a fantastic addition to your newly redecorated room. If you’d like to be bold and pick out a statement shade, our custom paint colour service is there to help.

Alternatively, if you’d like to keep pops of colour for your soft fabric furnishings, wood or neutral window shutter panels give you clean, unobtrusive lines that work beautifully with statement furniture and any decor.

refresh and redecorate

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Using your space more effectively

A re-think of how you use your space can refresh your home without a large financial outlay.

Create space with shutters

It may not be the first thing you think about when you plan to add or move furniture in your room – but smart shutter ideas can really open up possibilities when it comes to changing the layout of your area.

When curtains or full-length blinds hang in front of your windows, they require space – firstly so you can access them – and secondly so they physically close.

With shutters, these issues disappear.

So, shutters free up the floor in front of windows and patio doors – which means your windows are no longer off-limits when deciding where furniture can go.

It might not seem like it makes a huge difference – but flexibility when you’re positioning large items like sofas and dining tables can really change the way a room feels.

more space with shutters

Change layouts whenever you want with room dividers

room divider shutters change layout

Of course, if you’d like to take a more permanent approach to reimagine your floor plan, removing partition walls can transform your room beyond all recognition.

It might sound counterintuitive if you like the idea of going open-plan – but with plantation shutters as room dividers, your new vast rooms can offer the best of both worlds.

If you want to enjoy your space, they’ll fold back completely and take up virtually no space – but if you need to divide your room down again, you’ve got the option to do so quickly and effortlessly.

Shutters in loft conversion windows

According to the Halifax House Price Index, average property prices were up by 9.8% in 2021 – an increase of over £24,500. In some areas, these increases were significantly more – with estate agents noting that over-asking-price offers are increasingly common as people snap up newly listed properties.

This can make the property market an intimidating place for a buyer – so it’s no surprise to see more and more people converting loft spaces as a cost-effective way of creating more space.

Although loft conversions are often carried out to create an additional bedroom, there’s no end of possibilities if you have the right kind of space.

Loft conversions often become:

  • Bedrooms with en suites
  • Office or project rooms
  • Studio apartments
  • Lounge or living room space
  • Gyms
  • Cinema rooms

Shutters in loft conversion windows

Shutters really come into their own when used in loft space – and that’s thanks in part to just how versatile they are.

Unless you’re planning a cinema room, you’ll almost certainly be adding windows.

Skylight or ‘Velux’ style windows are the most popular kind in loft conversions – although it’s not uncommon to have gable-end windows fitted if your property allows.

The combination of odd shapes and angles of these windows means curtains and blinds are either impractical or downright impossible – but skylight shutters will be right at home.

Since window shutters are manufactured with a custom-made frame that attaches to the window aperture, you don’t have to worry about awkward shapes or sloping angles. Shutters can even be made-to-measure to fit circular and triangular windows.

shutters for skylight windows

Shutters as room dividers in lofts

Although it’s perfectly possible to create interior walls in loft conversions, these fixed boundaries can make the space begin to feel cramped – especially when you’re working with a sloping roof.

This is why people often opt for wood shutters as room dividers – creating flexible space that can be opened up wide to enhance the feeling of space when you’re in your new room.

By-pass or bi-fold sliding shutters work exceptionally well in these cases – creating beautiful walk-in wardrobe-style spaces that can be opened right up when access is needed.

Wardrobe door shutters in lofts

There’s a strong chance you’re going to be working with awkward cupboard shapes when you convert a loft – not least if you decide to turn the space in the eaves into storage.

If you’re considering shutters for loft windows or loft room dividers, you can carry that style on through the rest of the room with bespoke shutters as wardrobe or cupboard doors.

Our solid panel shutters work well in these cases – but if you’re keen to keep a little air circulating around your clothes or possessions, choosing a shutter with slats gives your cupboards a chance to breathe.

Clear out that garage

Garage conversions are one of the most cost-effective and quick ways to add a significant extra swathe of floor space to your home.

A big part of why converting a garage is so popular boils down to the lack of upheaval.

Having a similar-sized extension built could involve months of building work and associated disturbance – but transforming your garage often takes less than two weeks.

With an impressive existing aperture in place, many people choose French doors as a straight replacement for an up-and-over garage door.

This makes privacy tricky though – especially as virtually all garage fronts are accessible from the street.

Shutters offer a fantastic solution to this problem.

Bi-fold shutters let you close the front of your new room off completely when you’d like privacy – or simply angle the louvres so it’s only the sun that can see inside.

Of course, if it’s a bright sunny day and you’re happy to let the warmth and sunlight flood in, then fold your shutters back and enjoy your new space!

Working from home


At the end of 2019, no one could have imagined what a shift the UK workforce was going to go through in just a matter of months.

By the middle of 2020, calling your bank no longer meant speaking to someone in a busy call centre – instead, you were more likely to be talking to someone in their kitchen.

As uncomfortable dining chairs took their toll on lower backs around the nation, many people decided to set up a make-shift working space.

As working from home has rolled on, those make-shift home offices have become more and permanent – and now, as work from home seems set to stay, practical little offices are the must-have trend.

working at home

Working in privacy

home privacy with shutters

Shutters have quickly established themselves as the best home office window treatment – but the reason why is more than just style.

Shutters offer an unbeatable combination of privacy and natural light.

If you’ve got curtains in your office, they need to be drawn if you want privacy from passers-by on your Zoom call – but shutters can just be angled, meaning the sunlight isn’t completely shut out – but you’re free to make your presentation without any prying eyes.

You don’t need a dedicated office room

Productivity experts say that drawing clear lines between what’s ‘office space’ and ‘home space’ is an essential part of being able to focus when you’re at the virtual office and wind down when it’s time to put your feet up and watch TV.

This can be tricky though – especially if you don’t have a dedicated room for your workstation.

Again, this is where room dividers can save the day.

Mounted on virtually invisible tracks, room dividing plantation shutters can fold back against the wall when it’s time to relax or have some quality family time – but can be effortlessly moved into place when you need to work through those emails.

This makes working from home easier on family life too – an effective room divider means you don’t have to ban people walking to the kitchen while you’re making a video call in the dining room either!

Renovating in a sustainable way

Today, there’s a huge emphasis on renovating property in a way that is sustainable, ethical, and energy-efficient.

Fast fashion is a phrase we commonly associate with clothing – but fast homeware is quickly becoming a problem in its own right.

First coined by the media outlet Refinery 29, the idea of fast homeware is simple; cheap homeware products with price-tags that are so appealing they make us forget the environmental or ethical impact of what we’re buying.

Often, that impact is significant. Especially when trends come and go so quickly.

Clearly, the prospect of picking up perfectly-sized antique shutters in a charity shop is beyond unlikely – so buying new, made-to-measure shutters is the only real option.

The question is, can this be done while keeping sustainability at the forefront of your mind? With Shuttercraft, it can.

A quick browse through our range of shutter styles will give you some insight into where the raw materials for our shutters come from.

From sustainable Ayous wood plantations in the Solomon Islands – to the ethical sourcing of Paulownia wood for lighter-weight shutters with a reduced carbon footprint, we’re proud to push back against the damaging trend of fast homeware.

Of course, this doesn’t mean that your shutters aren’t an attractive addition to your home.

It means they’re a timelessly stylish and long-lasting addition that we expect to be locking heat into your home for years to come.

Renovation vs relocation

As you can see, there are plenty of shutter ideas that can provide a foundation for stunning renovations to virtually any property.

The question is, would these types of renovation make you fall in love with your property again, or would increased kerb appeal and an improved valuation make you consider putting an estate agent’s board in front of your house?

Renovation vs relocation
window shutters

Get in touch today!

Why not contact your local Shuttercraft?

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About the Author

Maddie Racher

Maddie Racher is a creative and driven individual, with an impeccable eye for interior design. She has a passion for writing, and creating exciting content with her extensive knowledge of the product portfolio.

As a Marketing Assistant, Maddie is dedicated to crafting content that showcases how you can transform your home with high-quality, premium products.

In her role, Maddie handles Shuttercraft’s social media presence, so always has an eye on ...

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