Cafe Shutters

How did cafe shutters get its name?

In the French cafe's they had a problem. How can they let light into the cafe while protecting the privacy of their clients?

The solution: They put shutters only on the bottom half of the window so while the occupants were kept private, light was still able to come via the upper half. So this is how half-size shutters got its name.

This idea is not only used in cafes. Another time that this idea came into use was when glass had just become available and was still very expensive; people would just spend for glass on the upper half of the window and continued to cover the unglazed part on the bottom with shutters.

Any shutter style can be transformed into a half-size shutter; just put it into the lower half of the window and here you have it. The upper empty half is usually decorated with a fabric valance.

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