Café-style shutters: street-level privacy, full daylight overhead

The name comes from the half curtains once hung in shop and café windows: cover the bit people look through from the pavement, leave the rest alone. A café shutter is a single row of louvred panels mounted partway up the window, usually lined up with a glazing bar or the meeting rail of a sash so the top edge looks deliberate rather than arbitrary.

Because there is no panel above, the upper glass is never shaded. That makes café-style the brightest shutter you can fit, and on a north-facing front room it can be the difference between a room that feels open and one that feels boxed in.

It is less suited to bedrooms that need to be dark, or rooms overlooked from above, such as a front room opposite a block of flats. There the open top lets in both light and sightlines.

• Ground-floor front rooms on terraced streets, where the pavement is a metre from the glass.
• Kitchens facing a neighbour's window, where you want privacy at worktop height.
• Bay windows on Edwardian houses, where the top lights are part of the character.
• Bathrooms at ground level, using waterproof ABS panels.

The single most important decision is where the top of the shutter sits. Too low and people on the pavement see over it; too high and you lose the brightness that made you choose café-style in the first place. We stand outside on the survey and look back at the window at eye level, then set the height against the sash rail or transom so it reads as part of the joinery.

Louvre size matters too. Wider louvres give a clearer view when tilted open, narrower ones suit smaller sash panes. The louvre size guide covers the options if you want to read up before we visit.

Less panel means less material and less making, which is why café-style is usually 30 to 40% cheaper than full-height on the same opening. Written quote after a free survey.

If you later decide you want full cover, the honest answer is that you would be replacing the shutter rather than adding to it, so it is worth being sure. The café-style versus full-height comparison guide sets out the trade-off with both options side by side.

Plenty of customers fit café shutters and keep a simple blind or a curtain behind or above for evenings. That keeps the daytime look clean and gives full cover after dark. We can measure for both on the same visit, since we make and fit made-to-measure blinds as well as shutters.

Both of our shutter materials can be made café-style. Hardwood is the natural choice for living rooms and bedrooms: it is light, stable and takes paint or stain beautifully, and it keeps panels slim on wider sections of a bay.

Waterproof ABS is made for bathrooms, kitchens and anywhere with steam or splashes. It will not swell or warp, and it wipes clean with a damp cloth, which suits a lower-half shutter that sits right by a sink or a bath. On a ground-floor shower room overlooked from the garden, a café shutter in ABS gives privacy at exactly the height you need it while leaving the top glass bright. If you are unsure which material a particular room needs, we bring samples of both on the survey so you can compare weight, finish and colour side by side in the window itself.