Ideas for old window shutters?

[kliu]

Sorry to bombard the forum. This place (and my bt3100!) has really opened a new world for me.

So, I have a ton of old wooden shutter doors for windows and patio doors. There's about 6 windows and 3 patio doors worth of this stuff from when I bought the house.
I couldnt bring myself to toss them, as the wood still looked to be in great shape and all solid wood.

Now that they've been in the garage for a while, SWMBO is starting to "remind" me to do something with them.

Any ideas what I can do with them? They are all pretty 70's, brown and big. I can only think of disassembling them, but not sure how useful those pieces will be. Any ideas would be appreciated.

[ironhat]

Cut an inset around the inside perimeter of a shutter and drop in a piece of glass for an coffee table. Even if the glass has to stick up above the wood because of louvers or panel you can have the edges beveled for a nice effect. I've seen a pair of shutters hinged together and stood in a corner as an accent or a way to hide an occassional use item (TV, sewing machine, mother-in-law,etc) with a little grapevine or swags of scarfs over it for decorative effect. Hey, I DO like NASCAR, OK. And, my undies are BVD, NOT Victoria's Secret! - LOL!!

[LarryG]

Hmmm. <fx: sound of drumming fingers on desktop>

Are these louvered shutters, with true individual slats? If so, you could take them apart and have a lifetime supply of loose tenon stock.

That's all I got.

I like ironhat's corner accent/screen idea, but the part about his BVDs is bordering on TMI.

[Handy Al]

Shop or garage cabinet door?

[RLonning]

I mentioned this to LOML, since she is the design specialist in the house, and she told me there is a pretty strong market for old shutters. She thought you could get $25-$35 each for them. She also said she's seen them used for cabinet doors as well as kitchen cubbords. She's also seen them used on each side of a doorway, to give the doorway a wider look. She also suggested hinging three of the tall ones together to make a room divider/screen.

Good luck

[kliu]

Wow, great feedback!
The coffee table idea is pretty creative.
Most of the shuttles are hinged, with 2 "doors" on either side of the window. The patio door shutters are huge, like 7'x1.5' and also hinged.

Not sure where I could sell them.
The room divider did give me an idea of sectioning off my garage for my work area and car. Not sure I have enough of the big ones to make a full "wall".

Thanks!

[Jim-Iowa]

Well I had been toying around with the idea of boxing in the air compressor and a Dust Collector to control noise in the shop.
Was thinking Louvered doors but their just big shutters?

[kliu]

If my garage didnt already have cabinets and shelving on all the walls, they would make decent cabinet doors.

LOML didnt like the sectioning off of the garage. She countered with using a curtain to section off.

I do have a pending project to build a small fence for the side of my house. Hoping to setup a little dogrun area. Maybe I can use the parts to frame the fence and the slats to add some design. What would I have to do to weatherproof it?

[ChrisD]

Ken,
There was a Woodsmith issue with a louvered floor lamp project. The lamp is essentially a tall box where each side is a louvered frame.