Plastic louvered blinds, more commonly known as “shutters”, were attached to this 1960’s ranch style house in a presumed effort to beautify it.

Even if hinged and operable, none of the four shutters on the front of this house would cover or protect anything.  The tall shutters flanking the bay window are too far from the window glass to even reach it.  The hopelessly tiny shutters flanking the ginormous garage door would only cover about 1/12 of the opening if they were theoretically hinged and operable.

Ironically, truly functional “plantation” style shutters may be seen through the bay window on the interior.

Scenes such as this are evidence that many people no longer understand what exterior shutters were or how they were intended to function.  There is nothing inherently wrong with the purely decorative use of shutters, but such decorations should be at least somewhat visually plausible (appear to be potentially functional) in order to avoid the opposite of the intended effect!

 

Pretty or silly?

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