Shutters in Barking

Window Shutters in Barking

Window shutters in Barking have to suit very different homes. A glass balcony door in a new Barking Riverside flat, a front window over a shop on East Street and a bay in an older family house each need their own kind, and Barking has all three. So before we talk about colours or louvre sizes, we look at what kind of home you live in and what the window has to do for you.

Our plantation shutters in Barking are made to measure interior window shutters: panels with tilting slats, called louvres, that fit inside or around your window. Many people call them shutter blinds, and it is the same product. We measure and fit them for free across IG11. The right style depends on your home, and the four situations below each get their own advice.

Shutter styles for Barking homes
Your home	Style to look at first	Main reason
Riverside flat with balcony doors	Sliding or full height	Doors still open every day
Flat above a town centre shop	Café style	Privacy low down, daylight up top
Rented or leasehold flat	Any style, after a written yes	Fixings go into the frame or wall
Older family house	Full height or tier on tier	Bedrooms, bays and kitchens differ

Window shutters in Barking, one town, very different windows

Barking’s homes split into a few clear groups, and each one changes the shutter we would suggest. Down by the river, Barking Riverside is a large new neighbourhood with more than 10,000 new homes planned, many of them flats with big glass doors. The Overground station there opened in July 2022, and the ride into Barking takes about seven minutes. In the town centre, most ground floors on streets like East Street and Ripple Road are shops, with flats or offices above. Away from the centre you find older family houses, and the edge of the Becontree estate reaches into the Barking side too.

We have been fitting blinds and shutters in East London for over 10 years, and Barking sits right next door to our Dagenham base. That makes the visit a short trip for us. Our hours are 9am to 9pm Monday to Saturday and 10am to 6pm on Sunday.

Whatever your home, your window shutters in Barking are built to your sizes. You choose from:

Real wood, made from basswood, or faux wood, a PVC material picked for its extra strength
Louvre widths of 47mm, 63mm, 89mm or 114mm
Whites, off-whites and a range of wood finishes, or a colour of your own that we have made for you
Styles that open as one panel, split into two levels, cover only the bottom half, or slide on a track

Window shutters for French doors in a Barking Riverside flat

For the French doors to a balcony, look at sliding shutters first, or full height shutters on hinges if there is room for the panels to fold back. The doors are the one window in the flat you walk through, so the shutters must move out of the way every time.

Our sliding shutters for patio and French doors run on tracks, so the panels glide sideways past each other instead of swinging into the room. That suits a narrow living space where a sofa or dining table sits close to the glass. Hinged full height shutters work well when the doors have clear wall either side for the panels to fold against. A mid-rail, which is a cross bar part way up, makes a tall panel stronger and lets you tilt the top and bottom louvres on their own.

These are the things we check on Riverside shutter blinds for French doors:

Which way your doors open, inwards or outwards, and how far the handle sticks out
How much wall space sits either side of the glass
Whether the floor or threshold is level enough for the bottom of a tall panel
Whether the flat’s lease or tenancy needs a landlord’s or managing agent’s yes first (more on that below)

New-build flats often have plain modern frames and white walls. Pure white or off-white panels tend to sit quietly against them, but a soft wood finish can warm up an open plan living room. We can talk through both at the visit.

Café style shutter blinds for a flat above an East Street or Ripple Road shop

If you live above a shop in Barking town centre, café style shutters are often the best fit. They cover only the lower part of the window, from the sill up, so people on the bus or across the street cannot see in, while the top of the glass stays clear for daylight.

The town centre is mostly shops at street level, with homes on the floors above, along East Street, Station Parade, Ripple Road, North Street and Broadway. A first floor window here often looks straight across at the upper floors opposite or down onto a busy pavement. Full privacy all day can make a room gloomy. Café style shutters give you a screen exactly where people could look in and leave the sky view alone.

Café style works well above a shop when:

The room faces the street and you want to keep the louvres open in the day without being on show
The window is tall, so the bottom half alone still blocks the view in from below
You want something tidy and easy to dust, with no fabric to take down and wash

Noise is a fair worry on a busy road. Shutters are solid panels, so they can soften some sound when closed, but the glass and the gaps around the window matter more. Our guide on how much shutters cut road noise explains what to expect.

Window Shutters London

We understand that your London home or business is your pride and joy – a place that reflects your style, personality and design aesthetic. If you are looking to add style and elegance to your windows, shutters are a great alternative to blinds or curtains. Not only do wooden window shutters provide additional privacy, but are also energy efficient, keeping you warm in the winter and cool in the summer.

Shutters London

Why Choose London Blinds 4U for Window Shutters?

– Great Quality
– Made to Measure
– Excellent Customer Service
– Competitive Quotes
– Hassle Free
– Multiple Styles Available
– Free Measuring & Fitting

“They measured my windows first and then 4 weeks after they fitted my blinds and shutters. I would not hesitate to recommend this company to anyone.”

- Liza Harrison

Plantation Shutters London Styles

When considering new shutters in your home or business premises, you must consider the style of building, the room you are looking to install wooden plantation shutters in, and the style you are interested in. Customers should also think about the purpose of the shutters – different styles are better for those looking for optimal privacy, while others allow more light to flood the room. We are equipped with all the knowledge you need to make a perfect choice.

There are many different types of shutters available for your London home or business – picking the right design is key to your comfort and style! We stock many styles of bespoke shutters:

Tier on Tier Shutters London

This type of shutter is basically one shutter fixed above another shutter, giving you the option of controlling the slats individually. For example, you may wish to close the bottom half slats for privacy but keep the top tier slats open to allow light into the room. Tier on Tier Shutters offer flexibility for varied use.

Full Height Shutters London

Full height is the most common type of shutter you may come across day to day. Full height shutters cover the whole of the window. Various options available for full height shutters, one being the option of having a mid-rail. Mid-rails are added to full height shutters for taller windows to strengthen the shutter; they also allow you to operate the upper and lower slats individually, giving you maximum light and privacy control for your London property.

Café Style Window Shutters London

This type of shutter is normally fitted at half height from the window sill upwards. Café style shutters, as the name suggests, are commonly used in restaurants and other catering environments. However, they are also suited for use in homes; the great benefit of these shutters is that they let plenty of light into any room but provide privacy from the base where the shutter is fitted.

Folding Shutters and Sliding Shutters London

For big glass windows, such as French doors and patio doors, sliding or folding shutters on tracked systems are a wise choice. These shutters are easily folded back to one side for practicality and ease of access through doorways or sliding doors. We stock a large variety of plantation shutters in different materials, patterns and colours to ensure our customers always purchase the best design for their individual needs.

Fitting Bespoke Window Shutters in London

Book an appointment today with one of our experienced advisors and we will advise you on what is the best type of shutter for your windows. We use no sales techniques, just straightforward guidance and realistic price quotes.

We offer a free onsite visit and go through the different types of shutters available with you. We can also match Wooden Venetian blinds to complement the shutters for those awkward windows to which shutters cannot be fitted.

Our wooden shutters are made from high-quality basswood and are also available in PVC (faux wood) for increased strength. This option is also more environmentally friendly. All our London shutters are available in various slat sizes, including 47mm, 63mm, 89mm & 114mm. LondonBlinds4U shutters are available in various finishes including whites, off-whites and various wood finishes.

Ask us about our full range, or book an appointment today with one of our experienced advisors!

“Excellent service with two lovely men who did a great job! Thank you!”

- Google review

A rented or leasehold flat in IG11: getting a yes before shutters go up

Yes, you can usually have shutters in a rented or leasehold flat, but get written permission first. Shutters are screwed into the window frame or the wall around it, and many tenancy agreements and leases say you cannot drill or fix things to the windows without asking.

It matters in Barking because so many homes at Riverside and in the town centre are flats, and a flat usually comes with a lease or tenancy that has something to say about drilling into window frames. Here is the order that saves the most time:

Read your tenancy agreement or lease and look for anything about fixings, drilling, blinds or window coverings.
Email your landlord, letting agent or managing agent. Say you want made to measure shutters fitted inside the window, and ask for a yes in writing.
Book our free measuring visit. We can come before the answer arrives, so you have a clear idea of style and fitting to show them.
Once you have the written yes, go ahead with the order.

If you own a leasehold flat, the same rule often applies through the lease, even though you own the home. A short email to the freeholder or managing agent is worth sending before you commit. If you are the landlord, shutters are a sensible choice for a let: there are no cords to break and the panels wipe clean between tenants.

Window shutters for the bedroom in an older Barking family house

For a family house, bedrooms are usually where shutters earn their keep. Close the panels and tilt the louvres shut, and the room gets much darker and more private. People often ask us for blackout window shutters. Shutters are not fully blackout on their own, because a little light shows round the louvre edges.

If you need a truly dark room, for a baby, for shift work or for light summer evenings, you can pair the shutters with a blackout blind behind the shutters. Whether that works depends on how deep your window recess is, so we measure for it at the visit rather than guess.

A few other points for bedroom shutters in a Barking house:

Bay windows. Each face of the bay gets its own panels, so the whole bay opens and closes as one neat set.
Tier on tier. The top and bottom sections open separately. You can keep the lower half shut for privacy and fold back the top half for daylight.
Children’s rooms. Shutters are worked by a tilt rod, with no hanging cord or chain.
Louvre size. Wider louvres such as 89mm or 114mm let more light and view through when open. Smaller ones such as 47mm or 63mm can look better on a narrow window.

Some Barking homes are part of the Becontree estate, which spreads across the Dagenham side too. If yours is one of those cottage style houses, our page on window shutters in Dagenham covers those windows in detail.

One shutters customer wrote this after their fitting:

“Very happy with our new shutters. Beautifully fitted and very good quality. Would definitely recommend and a good price too.”

Nadia m, Google review

Shutter blinds for a Barking kitchen: why faux wood copes with steam

Choose faux wood shutters for a kitchen. Faux wood is made from PVC, so it does not soak up water the way real wood can, and it stands up better to steam from the kettle and cooker and to splashes near the sink.

Real wood shutters, made from basswood, look lovely in a living room. A kitchen is harder on it. Faux wood shutters give you the same look of louvres and panels, in white or a wood finish, with a tougher surface.

For a kitchen we also look at:

The tap. If it sits close to the glass, the panels need room to open without hitting it.
Window handles, so you can still open the window to let steam out.
Café style for a kitchen that faces a garden path or a neighbour, so you can keep the top clear for light.

Cleaning is simple. Run a dry cloth or duster along each louvre, and a damp cloth for grease marks on faux wood.

Barking town centre conservation area and internal shutters

Internal shutters are fitted inside your home, so they do not change the outside of the building in the way new windows would. For most homes in Barking that means planning permission is unlikely to come into it. The main exception is a listed building: there, inside works that affect its character can need listed building consent, so ask the council before you order.

Part of Barking town centre is the Abbey and Barking Town Centre Conservation Area, and Abbey Road Riverside is a conservation area too. If you live in a flat above a shop inside one of these, it helps to know that shutters sit behind the glass and leave the window frames as they are, so the street view of the building does not change.

If you are unsure whether your building is listed, Barking and Dagenham Council’s conservation pages are the place to check. We are happy to talk it through at the visit too.

What we measure when we visit a Barking home

At the free visit we measure every window and help you pick a style. Then we give you a clear quote. There is no pressure to order on the day.

We decide between a recess fit, inside the window opening, and a face fit, on the wall around it, once we have seen the window. Recess depth, handles and the shape of the sill all play a part. We also check whether the frame is square, because made to measure panels have to match the window that is really there.

When your window shutters are ready, our own team fits them. We will show you how to open the panels, tilt the louvres and keep everything clean. If you also need blinds for other rooms, our blinds in Barking page covers the full range, and you can ask us to measure for both at the same visit.

Plantation shutters across Barking and IG11: the neighbourhoods we visit

Barking sits in the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham, and the whole of IG11 is a short run from our Dagenham base. We measure and fit shutters, free of charge, in each of these parts of Barking:

Barking town centre (IG11)
Barking Riverside (IG11)
Thames View (IG11)
Gascoigne (IG11)
Eastbury (IG11)
Longbridge (IG11)
Upney (IG11)
Creekmouth (IG11)

Searching for shutters near you, anywhere from Thames View up to Upney? Book a visit and we will bring samples to your home. Live closer to East Ham? See our shutters in East Ham page.

Questions Barking customers ask about plantation shutters

Q: Can you fit shutters in a flat?

Yes. Shutters suit flats well, from small bedroom windows to full balcony doors. If you rent or hold a lease, get written permission before they are fixed, as many agreements cover drilling and window fixings.

Q: Can I get blackout window shutters?

Not on their own. Closed shutters make a room much darker, but a little light gets round the louvre edges. For full darkness, add a blackout blind behind them if your recess is deep enough.

Q: Are plantation shutters better than curtains?

Shutters give you finer control: you can tilt the louvres for light and privacy at the same time, which curtains cannot do. They also have no fabric to wash and no cords. Curtains can feel softer and cosier, and some people use both.

Q: Do plantation shutters block noise?

They can soften some street noise when closed, because the panels are solid. The biggest difference still comes from your glazing and any gaps around the frame, so treat shutters as a help rather than a cure.

Q: Can you match shutters to the rest of my room?

Yes. As well as whites, off-whites and wood finishes, you can pick a colour of your own and we have the shutters made in it.

Book a free window shutters visit in Barking

Tell us which rooms you are thinking about and we will arrange a time to measure for window shutters in Barking. You can see more of our styles on our plantation shutters page before we come.