Plantation shutters are growing in popularity in Scotland and one company doing a great job in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Stirling is Scottish Shutters outfit, The Glasgow Shutters Company. Iris Mackay, shutter designer for The Glasgow Shutter Company wrote to tell us about a recent installation they undertook in Edinburgh, installing plantation shutters on a conservatory roof.

“While it’s true that we don’t get hours and hours of endless sunshine here in Glasgow, Edinburgh does have slightly better weather and there’s a definite rise in popularity of plantation shutters in both areas. Maybe people like plantation shutters in Scotland as they can block out the rain!

However, we recently installed plantation shutters on a conservatory roof which turned out to be a great success. The shutters were installed in a large house in Morningside, Edinburgh which had a lovely, if ill conceived conservatory. I say ill conceived as the conservatory faced west and bore the brunt of the afternoon sun. Conservatory blinds had been bought on different occasions but the fabric was just ravaged by the suns glare and was not durable enough to last.

Our customer saw plantation shutters featured in an article in a Sunday paper and contacted us to enquire if we could install shutters on her conservatory roof. The roof presented challenges as it had large opening handles to contend with, which required some creative thinking to get the plantation shutters to fit seamlessly and still facilitate easy operation of the opening windows. They were fitted with the hidden rod system to give a clean lined look to the overall job.

The shutters were fitted inside the existing wood framing of the conservatory roof. The plantation shutter panels were flush with the front of this framing, creating a smooth visual look to the roof.

I know that I am biased as our company sells plantation shutters, but when installed the shutters were just a class apart from the old fabric conservatory blinds that were there before. The shutters also gave much better flexibility and tilting the slats meant that the customer could deflect the direct sunlight into the space but still have light filtering nicely into the room.

Both myself and my shutter installer who fitted these conservatory roof  shutters enjoyed this job as it was something out of the ordinary. The customer was also happy, I am pleased to say, as we’ve been recommended to do another shutters roof installation just around the corner in Edinburgh!