I am building decorative exterior shutters out of 1x solid pine with 3/8 plywood center panels, shaker style, rails and stiles, single center panel, no louvers. All edges will be sealed with paint and caulk.

The top edge will be 2 seamed layers of 3/4” solid pine, total of 1.5” thick. The end grain of the pine rails will be part of that top edge, but will be sealed.

The shutters will be installed against cedar lap siding. I can fill the top gap with a beveled cedar shim, but probably would not caulk that in order to keep siding and shutters separate. They will be under an eave so they should not see much rainfall. However it gets very humid here and there may be condensation drips. No snow.

Should I buy a metal drip edge to cover the top 1.5+ inches of each shutter? What specific drip edge product should I search for? Or should I just paint 2 coats latex paint plus primer and be done with it?

Other options:

1. Should I add a coat of water seal or poly to the top only? (I do not want to poly the shutter faces because they will likely need to be repainted during their lifetime due to exposure to insects and debris.)
2. Should I bevel the top edge so water flows off to the front? (Prefer not to do that. I will bevel the top edge of the bottom rail since that edge may see rain.)
3. Should I clad the top edge with one smooth piece of wood or PVC so there are no seams?

I’ll be using the high end SW exterior paint (emerald rain refresh) for the shutter faces and the SW superpaint for the back sides.

Thanks!

This is similar to the shutter style, except mine will have one center panel (not 2) and will have 2 layers of rails and stiles.

Here is a diagram of the top edge of each shutter: