Tier-on-tier or full height? Choosing a shutter configuration

One panel, one clean vertical line, fewer visual interruptions. On tall Georgian and Victorian windows it looks properly architectural, and a mid-rail can be added so the louvres above and below tilt separately while the panel still opens as one.

That mid-rail trick gives most of the flexibility of tier-on-tier at a lower cost, and it is what we recommend more often than people expect.

The tiers open independently, so you can throw the top open for light and air while the bottom stays closed and private. On a front bedroom or a street-facing lounge that is genuinely useful every day.

It suits sash windows particularly well because the split can be aligned with the meeting rail, so the shutter reads as part of the window rather than as something applied over it.

Tier-on-tier means more frame, more hinges and more panels for the same opening, so it costs more. It also gives more edges for light to pass, which matters if blackout is a priority.

Full height with a mid-rail sits between the two on both cost and function, which is why it is the most-ordered configuration we fit.

• Tall period sash, street facing, tier-on-tier
• Bay in a family lounge, full height with mid-rail
• Bedroom needing darkness, full height, blackout blind behind
• Small kitchen window, full height, no rail needed

We look at the window proportions, where the meeting rail sits, how overlooked the room is and how you actually use it. It is a five-minute conversation on site that saves ordering the configuration you will find annoying.

Cafe style covers the lower portion of the window only, typically to a transom or to sill height plus about a metre, leaving the glass above clear. On a terrace where the pavement is close to the glass it keeps the room bright while stopping passers by looking in at seated head height, and it is the cheapest way into shutters because you are buying roughly half the panel area.

The trade off is that it does nothing after dark, when the lit room above the shutter line is fully visible from the street. That is the point at which tier on tier earns its premium.

A rough guide from the jobs we fit most often across Warrington and Cheshire.

• Front bay on a busy road: cafe style by day, or tier on tier if the room is used in the evening
• Bedroom: full height, ideally with a split tilt rod
• Period sash in a conservation area: tier on tier, for the correct proportions
• Kitchen over a sink: cafe style, so the top stays clear for washing up light
• Landing or stairwell: full height, since nobody stands and looks in