In some situations, a cafe style shutter may be ideal. In this case you are not covering the full height of the window but merely bringing the shutter panel to your chosen height (normally a half height window shutter) within the window recess and leaving the top half of the window free. In many cases this type of shutter installation is complemented with curtains.
Many people choose cafe style shutters as they believe they will let in more light or increase their view. The fact is that with modern louvre sizes such as a 76mm or 89mm louvre the view should never be an issue.
Cafe style shutters may restrict the view as you are placing the top rail of the panel right in your line of sight while with a full height design that rail is being placed at the top of the window.
Cafe style shutters also work well with windows that have stained glass finish in the very top section of the window pane. The cafe style shutter allows this to be displayed without louvers obscuring the design.
Cafe style shutters can look really great in windows but you need to be installing them for the right reason. Cost saving is not one of them. You cannot add a 2nd set of shutters above the first at a later date to turn your café style shutter into a tier on tier shutter.
When tier on tier are installed it’s with an upside goal post shaped frame to which the panels are attached. The frame does not fit around the whole recess. So should you want to add a shutter set above the first the original frame needs to be removed and a new full frame installed. The hinges need to be aligned with old panels on site rather than at manufacture and this can lead to mis-alignment. Then, on top off this, potential changes in shade due to slight fading or batch manufacture can mean that the new panels look just slightly different to the old.
You are better off to buy one set of full height shutters and then add subsequent windows later.
