Why Maynard
Tall Windows, Small Lots
Walk the streets that fan out from the mill and you see the same window over and over: a tall, narrow double-hung, set singly or in pairs, on a house that has settled a bit over the last hundred years. Stock blinds never look right in them. The proportions are wrong and the frames are rarely square. A plantation shutter is built to the measured opening, so an out-of-square frame gets a panel that is out of square by the same amount and looks like it was always there.
The lots near the center are close enough that a first-floor window can look straight into the kitchen or living room next door. Louvers solve that better than any shade. Tilt them up and the light comes in off the ceiling while the sightline from the sidewalk is gone. Fold the panels back on a Sunday morning and the whole window is open. Our shutters page walks through the materials and frame styles.
On the ranches and capes further out toward Route 117 and Route 62 the windows are wider and squarer, and the question there is louver size. A 4.5 inch louver reads modern and airy on a picture window. The 2.5 inch louver suits the small panes on an older house. We bring both sizes and hold them up in the room.
There is one more argument for shutters in a town where houses change hands regularly. They are a permanent fixture that conveys with the house, shows up in the listing photos, and spares the next owner from buying window treatments.
