DIY Rustic Shutters

While we were installing cement board throughout the kitchen and dining room this weekend, I found myself spending a lot of time outside looking over my yard. I was doing the measuring and cutting, and J was mixing and spreading mortar. Since spreading the mortar takes much more time than cutting and is really a one man job, I decided to find a few small projects to fix up the yard. 

One thing that I've always thought would spruce up our detached carport is shutters. There is one sad little window into the shed portion of the carport, and it's just there. Every time I look at it, I imagine a cute little bench beneath the window surrounded by cute shutters and bright little pots. With my waiting time, I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to make that happen! 

This past spring, we cleared out most of the shed which hadn't been done in forever. I mean, ever. So, that left us with tons of garbage which we slowly put out with the trash one bag at a time. However, this also left us with over 100 cans of rotten, moldy, rusty paint cans since J's brother used to own a painting company and also used to use the shed for storage. They've been stacked next to the carport as we let the mostly empty ones dry out, and needless to say, it has not been a pretty sight. 

So, I removed the paint cans, raked and leveled the ground, cleaned and stored the wood with the rest of our wood, then got to building my shutters! 

Fortunately, I already had enough wood for this project along with the exterior screws and wood stain, so I started by measuring the height of my window. This specific window is 39" tall, so I made my shutters 40" tall to give an extra half an inch to the top and bottom to make sure they don't end up looking too small. To determine how many pieces of wood I would need, I measured the width of the window (which was 30") and decided that each shutter should be 15" wide so that they are properly proportioned with the window itself. If you have the room, I think you should always make each shutter half the width of the window so that if they were real shutters instead of decorative, you would be able to fully enclose the window. This is what will give them an authentic shutter look. 

I measured the boards that I had on hand (2x4 furring strips) and decided that 4 boards would be closest to 15" across. I then put two more boards across those 4, marked, and cut them. 

Before attaching everything, I sanded the edges of all of the boards that I just cut to make them look more finished. The boards on the right of the photo below are sanded, and those on the left are not. They just look more finished that way, right? 

I then ran some wood glue across the cross boards and let them dry a bit so that they would hold together once I screwed them in. Next came the screws! I made sure to use exterior screws so that they wouldn't deteriorate with the weather. 

For this step, I didn't mind if the screws showed from the front because I was going for "rustic" anyways, so I screwed right into the front of the shutter into each board. 

I then used Rustoleum Dark Walnut wood stain and a paint brush and simply brushed it into every crevice. 

After letting them dry for a few hours, I screwed them right into the side of the shed with 2.5" exterior screws. 

Now, this overall project isn't quite finished, but the shutters look fantastic. They make the window look larger and just add a cute rustic touch that had been missing before. Once they've dried a bit more, I'll brush them with a coat of clear sealer. 

To add to this project, I've sprayed a plastic bench and three hanging pots which I'll post as soon as I have them hung!