Ever since we've moved into our new home, My Husband Matt has put his room (Or "Man Cave" as we know it) on the back burner so that other things could be done first. He has been so sweet about letting me use it for home decor, event decor, clothes, and misc. storage.
Well, since the hectic first couple of months as new homeowners is starting to die down, I had made my mind up that I would help him get started on his Man Cave as an early Birthday present! He deserves it!!
In passing, he made a comment to me the other day that he would love to have some kind of rustic window treatments in his room. I pulled up Pinterest and nonchalantly pointed out a couple of ideas to see which one he liked the most. We went in the room together and he started to describe what he wanted them to look like. (Again, he was saying this in general. I doubt he thought I was crazy enough to attempt it. Welllll…)
The next day I worked on my usual “project prep” routine:
- Find the best design that will fit the space.
- Take measurements
- Draw up a plan of what it should look like and include measurement points
- Take measurements, AGAIN, just to be safe
- Look for Lowes or Home depot coupons
- Head to the store and get this bad boy rolling!
I first measured the window casing. (My window casing doesn’t have crown molding around it on the sides or at the top, which was a plus! This will make them easier to attach!)
My window measures 35″ wide and 58″ tall. So, here’s how I figured the math:
- If the window is 35″ wide, and we need two shutters, we will need to divide 35″ by 2, giving us 17.5.
- I would like to get a little room for clearance, so lets round both sides to 17 even, giving us a 1 inch clearance. (Room for the doors to open and close properly without worrying about rubbing.)
- You will want the shutters the same height as the window of course, so each of my shutters will need to measure 17″ wide and 58″ tall. There are tons of different styles for these shutters so all you need to know is that each shutter needs to be half of the window width (minus 1/2 inch from each shutter for clearance.)And then you can just decide what design and boards you want to use.
- I used (4) 1×10’s for my shutters. (And if you are familiar with wood, you know that the real measurement for a 1×10 = 9.25, so I had 37 inches of wood to work with.) I trimmed 1 1/2 inches from each of the inner 1×10’s to get them where I wanted them to be. Leaving them as 7.75″.
- You will need 1×4’s for both sides on the window to attach your shutters to. They will need to measure the length of your window as well. (1×4’s are really 1×3.5)
- For the boards that lay across the shutters, I purchased (4) 3×24 thin boards.
- Cut these boards to the same length as each shutter. Which in my case, would be 17″. DON’T FORGET you will need to also cut (4) pieces to go on each of your 1×4’s that are on the sides. The latches will sit on these pieces and make them even with the pieces that are on the shutters.
So, after my cutting was all said and done, I had:
(2) 9.25×58
(2) 7.75×58
(2) 3.5×58
(4)3×17
(4)3×3.5
