I have 2.5 inch plantation shutters on my entire second floor (5 bedrooms and 6 bathrooms) and there are plantation shutters on every window including the hall windows and the upstairs laundry room. I also have them in my basement.

I love them. They are clean and compliment every style of decorating. I do have Conrad shades in my formal living room and dining room on the lower level. In my family room on first floor I have a combination of 2.5" plantation shutters and custom drape panels. I love the look of shutters combined with custom drapes. In my husband's study on first floor I have dark mahogany stained plantation shutters.

The white plantations shutters do not keep a room dark at all when open during the day. They do keep the room dark at night when shut. I highly recommend them!

I would keep them shut on my bad days. How are they during the day when they are shut can you please tell me

Hi Kathy, During the day you can get a pretty dark room if all the blades are totally shut. The nice thing about them is they can be adjusted to let a bit of light in or none or open the top level blades and not the bottom. When my baby granddaughter comes we close all the blades all the way for her naps and she loves it. The room is dark...... Plantation shutters are amazing!

Kathy, we have plantation shutters throughout our entire house with 3 1/2" louvers...including the garage. Our shutters are all a soft white with no other window treatments. How dark do you need the room to be? When the shutters are closed, some rooms are darker than others depending on their location. We simply love them, and installing plantation shutters can add value to your home...unlike other window treatments. Also, they're so much easier to clean than anything with fabric.

As Kim mentioned with her granddaughter, our toddler grandson does fine for naps with the bedroom shutters closed.

One thing to consider...larger louvers allow more light in when the shutters are open.

I presently have a room darkening pull down roller shade which works nicely on my bad days but I would love to be able to go with the shutters in the new house so basically I am looking for the same level of darkness when it's shut

Again, I'm not sure how dark you need it to be...? For example, our kitchen windows face east, and there's morning light even with the shutters closed. Some light will get through tightly closed louvers depending on the location of the room. I just don't want to tell you the shutters are the same as a "black out" type window treatment.

Kathy, I would NEVER do them in a bdrm again. They were not dark enough for me. I am VERY picky (even cover the alarm clock) so YMMV. I do like them in LR.

I agree with Patricia
Block out roller shades and draperies with block out lining is the way to go...

shutters: https://www.houzz.com/photos/manhattan-beach-build-traditional-living-room-los-angeles-phvw-vp~3715969

Kathy, though I don't think you can beat the look of plantation shutters, they won't give you block out. Based on what you mentioned about your eye condition, you might be better with shades/drapes that can provide that.

Shutters get the room dark, but not as dark as black out shades.

Plantation shutters are a great look but they are only room darkening, not blackout.

Thank you to all I am going with plantation shutters .. fingers crossed

Kathy, let us know how they work out for you. The shutters are lovely, and, as I already mentioned, can provide some real advantages for your home. I just want your eyes to be okay!

I have dark plantation shutters in my bedroom. I hate them because I need to keep them shut (first floor front facing bedroom), but I can never tell what time it is when I wake up.

So maybe you would like them. They don't make it seem like night when it is day, but the room is pretty dim.