Making Louvered Wood Shutters: Start To Finish 

Do it production line style--all the rails, then all the stiles, then the louvers, etc. It will go faster than you think.

Obviously if you are mounting the router in a router table a light shining in your eyes would not be so useful, but otherwise I find it to be a great feature.

I do have some words of wisdom for you. Remember that the amount of wood you need to buy for this project is not that great, so you can afford to experiment and ruin a few pieces. Maybe you even have some scrap lying around. Put some time aside to make the jig you will need and be careful in it's construction. Once you have the jig made, the rest is really pretty easy. Use cheap or scrap wood to sneak up on your dimensions and then make the real shutters when you are happy with the design.

Some years ago I had an oil based copper preservative that I loved, and when I was down to my last can of it, I hoarded it for special projects! They changed the regulations about VOCs and all those products went away. In my area I have not seen a copper preservative in at least five years, although I think there are some water based copper formulations which do exist. In any case, the Miniwax wood hardener is a little bit different in it's purpose. It readily soaks into the wood fibers and then hardens as it cures. It helps keep the wood fibers together and any preservation quality is secondary. You can think of it as a watered down glue, I guess.

That's actually a great question, and it brings up an important point. So you are noticing that if you flip the top with the bottom of the jig that the diagonals are now angled the opposite way, so why not do that instead of flipping the jig side to side? Well, the reason that would not be a good idea is that the jig was cut by a human, not by a machine. No matter how carefully you mark and cut your jig, there are bound to be slight differences among the slots. So lets say that the fourth diagonal slot from the top of the jig is a 16th of an inch off from the others. You probably won't notice that difference if you flip the jig side to side. That's because both mortises for the fourth louver down will be an equal 16th of an inch off and the eye will not pick that up. However, if you flip the jig top to bottom, now the fourth mortise down on one side will be cut from a different slot in the jig from the other side. So now only one side of the fourth louver down will be a 16th off. That will result in a crooked louver and the eye WILL pick that up fairly easily. That's why it's best to use the same diagonal slot for both sides of each louver.

​@enduringcharm I've read this explanation twice, but I'm still not fully understanding. I have 24 shutters, so probably will make a jig and then it will make sense. Thanks, the video was great.

I would avoid pressure treated lumber for this purpose. It is generally a very poor quality, fast growth pine and you will experience excessive warping and shrinkage. Doug fir holds up surprisingly well if you pick examples with tight grain and if you add some preservative before painting. The size of the frames containing the louvers can indeed vary. Sometimes they are equal top and bottom, sometimes the top is slightly smaller than the bottom. Much depends on the height of the window. Smaller windows may have equal frame sizes while taller windows may have the larger bottom frame.

@@enduringcharm Many thanks for the prompt reply. I have a 3x5' window that I'm intending to add an architectural element to including a false balcony with a guardrail so I'm elongating the shutters to appear to be a doorway. I've picked up an intriguing tip from another woodworking RU-vidr who recommends milling down boards from 2x6, 2x8 or 2x10 stock since the size demands that they come from more heartwood than smaller 2x or 1x boards come from. I've had some success with longer 5/4 deck boards, but they do have more knots that I find myself cutting out. Living in South Carolina, the humidity is so pervasive that even live oak eventually rots. The market cost of well made shutters are in the $400 to $600 each which is why I think it's a worthwhile project. I'm not an everyday woodworker, but I have built end and coffee tables from oak flooring and even a queen size waterbed platform/headboard combo from oak veneer plywood I picked up from an auction many moons ago. I still have these pieces made back in the '70s and '80s. My mother told me early on that members of our family were furniture makers (out of necessity) long before my time. I'll check out my options from your much appreciated suggestions.

I routinely resaw 2x lumber for various purposes, including matching true 5/4 on old houses rather than using modern 5/4 which is often just 1 1/16" thick. However, the heartwood argument is not true. Modern lumber, 2x or otherwise, is milled to maximize output from the log. And even the concept of heartwood has lost meaning in the modern world, since all of the lumber is fast growth and cut down young. I just recently toured northern New England, Quebec and New Brunswick by motorcycle and stopped along the way at several local sawmills making 2x material. Even I was shocked at the raw material being used. The log diameters were so small that only a board or two could be produced for each one. They might cut a single 2x6 and maybe two 2x4s from a single log. Heartwood has no meaning in this context.

@@enduringcharm Your insights are very much appreciated. Research is much more economical than wasting money on false pretenses.

What I carry on my trailer are the official DeWalt 5 amp hour batteries, which do last a good long time. In my shop it's less critical if a battery fails, so I have experimented with third party batteries. The brands don't really seam to matter, based on my experience. The quality is going to vary no matter which brand you pick, and it's a hit or miss kind of thing. All of the third party brands I've tried have worked out of the box, but over time some of them will get distorted plastic from heat or the charge will not last as long in use. However, they are significantly cheaper than the DeWalt batteries. Your best bet is to look on Amazon for the brands which have sold the most and have the largest number of reviews.

Typically it makes more financial sense to purchase factory-made wood shutters over custom made. In a factory setting they have dedicated equipment and jigs, and can turn out shutters less expensively. However, if you need to match existing shutters or you have other custom requirements like historical accuracy, then a custom build can make sense. The price will vary depending on the style, the number, and details like wood species and painting. Each job has to be individually priced.

In the middle of the video I showed the measurements for that jig and the slots. It's just a piece of plywood with the slots carefully laid out with a pencil. You carefully cut out the slots with a jigsaw, first drilling a hole large enough for the jigsaw blade. Then the router collar rides in those slots. If you are using a different size workpiece or you want the louvers at a different angle you can just adjust the measurements in the video. You might want to try a short practice piece first before you commit to the whole jig.

That might depend on the type of construction and the condition of the rest of the shutter. Some louvers are mortised into the frame completely and others just have like a dowel sticking out the end which goes into a hole in the frame. If you have one louver which fell out, and the rest of the frame looks in good shape, then the ends probably rotted. You MAY be able to make a new louver slightly shorter than the others, slip it into one side of the frame, align and insert the opposite side, and then center it. A brad nail will hold it in place.

Thank you. I planned on glueing it before watching your video. I'll know more after climbing up later this week.

Do you mean how are they mounted? The hinges are in two pieces, with the "pintle" mounted on the window trim. The straps fit over the pintles. And, there are shutter "dogs" which hold back the shutters against the wall so they don't flap in the wind.

Actually, the louvers do expand and contract, plus it is better to allow the moisture in the slots to escape than to trap it with glue joints. What I do recommend is treating the ends of the louvers to seal the end grain, and treating the slots before assembly. If you can source a copper based preservative, that's great, but otherwise you can seal with a wood preservative or a primer.

Thanks for the reply!!!! I really appreciate it and your video basically filled in all the gaps of how to do it. Really well done and informative

That color is Benjamin Moore Essex Green, which is a widely used color for applications like this and looks good on both historic and newer houses.

I guess you didn't watch the whole video. It was not pine, but resawn douglas fir. And, of course, all wood purchased today is new growth since old growth forests are no longer available to be logged. In any case, the point of this project was to match existing wood shutters, so off-the-shelf plastics would not be appropriate, nor would they be appropriate for an historic house.

Not in France they're not. Most, if not all require permission to change shutter doors aka volets here in France.