Shutter BoysUpdated
The short version: Lennar puts much of what other builders sell as upgrades into the base price, and in some communities that includes blinds. So the question for many Lennar owners isn’t whether to cover the windows, but which rooms deserve better than the builder blinds. Bedrooms and the rooms facing the street usually do.
Shutter Boys and Shade Boys aren’t connected with Lennar. What follows about Lennar comes from its own published pages, linked in the sources; the rest is our own advice.
What Everything’s Included means
Lennar describes Everything’s Included as the way it “simplifies the process of customizing your new home”: popular features are built into the standard price instead of being sold as upgrades later[1]. Its Houston page puts it as “today’s most popular features at no extra cost to you. Without upgrade fees.”[2]
What’s included changes by market and community. Three Lennar pages we read show the range:
| Community | Included features named | Window coverings |
|---|---|---|
| Boise, Idaho | Stainless appliances, quartz countertops, luxury vinyl plank, washer and dryer, full yard landscaping with fencing and sprinklers[3] | Blinds throughout[3] |
| Estero, Florida | A Ring video doorbell, a Honeywell thermostat and a Schlage smart lock, among others[5] | “2" designer window blinds”[5] |
| Schertz, Texas | Granite countertops, luxury hard surface flooring and a stainless-steel appliance package[4] | Not mentioned |
Lennar’s Boise page adds that “All features and products can vary by community and homesite”[3], and the Florida listing tells buyers to see their New Home Consultant or purchase agreement “for actual features to be included in the home”[5]. That agreement is the document to read, not a brochure from another community.
If your Lennar home comes with blinds
Builder blinds do the basic job: privacy and some light control in every room on day one. What they don’t do as well is seal light at the edges, stay straight after years of raising and lowering, or look like part of the room. That’s where shutters earn their place. A sensible split for most Lennar homes:
- Shutters where you spend the most time. The primary bedroom, where light at the edges of a blind wakes you up; the living room and any room facing the street, where the window is seen from outside as well as in.
- Keep the blinds elsewhere. Secondary bedrooms, the laundry, the garage and windows nobody looks at can keep what Lennar fitted. There’s no reason to replace everything at once.
- Store what you take down. Label each blind with its window. If you sell, a buyer may expect the included blinds, and they cost nothing to keep.
- Fill the bracket holes. Blind brackets leave screw holes at the top of the opening. Fill and touch them up before the shutter frame goes in; an inside-mount frame doesn’t always cover them.
For the full comparison of shutters and blinds, cost per year included, see shutters vs blinds. If there are young children at home and the included blinds have cords, our cord safety guide covers what to check.
From contract to year ten
Lennar’s own homebuying guide sets out the steps; the warranty terms are from its warranty page[6]. The last column is our suggestion.
| When | What Lennar says happens | Window coverings |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing and customization | Features built into the price; you can personalize some design aspects, “such as the finish of your cabinets”[1] | Ask whether blinds are included, and in which rooms |
| Construction | “From pouring the foundation and framing to installing insulation and drywall, we manage the entire structural process”[1] | Nothing to order yet: shutters are made to the finished opening |
| New Home Orientation | Your Construction Manager walks you through the home and its systems, smart-home features included[1] | Open every window and slider; note any that stick or are damaged |
| Closing and move-in | Final documents signed; you move in[1] | Photograph each window, then measure the rooms you’ll do first |
| Year 1 | Workmanship: “fit-and-finish” items such as paint, flooring, cabinetry and drywall[1] | Report drywall cracks or paint at the window returns before fitting over them |
| Years 2 and 10 | Two years for mechanical and systems; ten for structural; shorter in Colorado and Utah[6] | Nothing to do; keep your photos |
Lennar says terms vary by state and community and asks buyers to read their own warranty documents for the exact coverage[1]. To raise an item, its warranty page invites you to “File a service request for anything covered by our warranty”[6]. If your financing is still in progress, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s Buying a house tools walk through comparing loan offers and getting ready to close[7].
Fitting shutters in year one
The first year is when Lennar’s workmanship coverage applies to drywall and paint[1], and the window returns are drywall and paint. So the order matters:
- Live with the house for a few weeks. Small drywall cracks and nail pops at window corners often show as a new house settles into its first heating or cooling season. Get them on a service request first.
- Measure after repairs. A patched return can change by a fraction of an inch, and shutters are made to the finished opening. How to measure
- Fix into the return, never the window. Our install guide fixes the frame to the opening around the window, not to the window unit or its frame.
- Check the window still works. Locks, sliders and tilt latches should operate with the shutter frame in place. If one doesn’t, an outside mount may suit that window better.
Matching shutters to Lennar trim and finishes
Because finishes come largely as a package, most rooms in a Lennar home share one trim color. Ask your New Home Consultant or Construction Manager for the trim paint’s brand, color name and sheen before you close; it’s the detail people forget to ask. White is our standard color, and the designer lets you name a paint to match if your trim is a different white. If the included blinds are white and you’re keeping some, it helps if the shutters’ white sits close to both.
Questions to ask your New Home Consultant
- Are blinds included in this community, and in every room or only some?
- What smart-home devices come with the home, so I don’t buy a second thermostat or doorbell?
- What brand, color and sheen is the interior trim?
- How deep are the window returns, and are the windows sliders or single-hung?
- What does the HOA require before anything is fixed outside, such as patio shades?
What to add after closing
Because Everything’s Included covers so much of the interior, the after-closing list for a Lennar home is short and mostly about comfort and the outdoors. Check your included list first, especially for the smart-home items; the Estero listing, for example, already includes a Honeywell thermostat[5].
| Upgrade | When | HOA review? | Where to start |
|---|---|---|---|
| Window coverings | Bedrooms in the first weeks; the rest when you’ve lived with the light | Usually only what shows from the street | Our made-to-measure wood shutters, or Shade Boys’ roller, zebra and cellular shades. Cordless if there are children at home. |
| Patio shades and screens | Before the first summer | Usually yes: most associations review anything fixed outside | Shade Boys motorized patio shades and retractable screens, fitted yourself or by a local installer. |
| Ceiling fans | Any time; easiest where the builder left a fan-rated box | No | ENERGY STAR lists certified fans[8]. Ask the builder which ceilings are pre-wired. |
| Smart thermostat | First month | No | ENERGY STAR certifies smart thermostats “based on actual field data”[9]. |
| EV charger | When you need it; cheaper if the builder ran conduit | Rarely, unless it’s outside | Level 2 is 240 V; “a qualified electrician can add circuits” and permits may be required[10]. |
| Solar panels | After you’ve seen a year of power bills | Often; read your association’s rules first | The Department of Energy’s homeowner guide[11]; incentives by state in DSIRE[12]. |
| Landscaping and irrigation | First planting season | Usually yes for front yards | “The average U.S. household uses more water outdoors than for showering and washing clothes combined”[13]; WaterSense lists efficient controllers. |
Outside, and the rooms where shades suit better
Shutter Boys makes wood shutters. Our sister company, Shade Boys, makes the rest: windproof motorized patio shades that run in side tracks, for a covered patio or porch, which you can fit yourself or have a local installer fit, and indoor roller, solar and patio door shades made to measure. A sliding door or a wide wall of glass is often better served by a shade than a shutter; bedrooms and street-facing windows are where shutters earn their keep.
Anything fixed to the outside of the house usually goes to the homeowners association first. Ask for its architectural review form before you order patio shades, and expect it to ask for the colour, the mounting and a photo of a similar product. Shade Boys’ HOA guide covers what boards usually look for on the windows; no product is approved everywhere, because each association decides for itself.
What shutters add up to
If you’re replacing included blinds, start with the first two stages; if your community didn’t include blinds, the whole house is the number to plan around. A made-up four-bedroom home, priced in stages:
| Stage | Openings | Price |
|---|---|---|
| First: bedrooms | four bedroom windows, 36 × 60 in | $1,620 – $1,980 |
| Then: main floor | three 48 × 60 in windows and a 72 × 80 in sliding door | $2,700 – $3,300 |
| Last: the rest | two 24 × 36 in bathroom windows and a 36 × 48 in stair window | $640 – $800 |
| The whole house | all twelve openings | $4,960 – $6,080 |
Each window is priced on its own, so the stages add up to the whole; splitting an order only means each part ships separately. Keep the louver size, moulding and colour the same from the first order so later rooms match. The designer prices your own sizes in a few minutes.
Lennar areas we cover
Lennar builds across much of the country. Our state pages show local housing and weather figures and what they mean for shutters: Florida, Texas, California, Arizona, North Carolina and Colorado.
Common questions
Do Lennar homes come with blinds?
In some communities, yes. Lennar Boise lists blinds throughout the home among its included features, and a Lennar listing in Estero, Florida lists 2-inch designer window blinds. Others, such as the Schertz, Texas release we read, don’t mention them. Lennar says features vary by community and homesite, so check your purchase agreement.
Can I upgrade a Lennar home before closing?
Lennar builds many popular features into the base price through Everything’s Included, and says you can personalize some design aspects, such as the finish of your cabinets. Ask your New Home Consultant what can be changed in your community; window coverings beyond what’s included are usually easiest to add after closing.
What does Lennar’s warranty cover?
Lennar’s warranty page lists one year for workmanship, two years for mechanical and systems, and ten years for structural, and notes that the limited warranty is shorter in Colorado and Utah. Read your own warranty documents for the exact terms.
Should I replace the builder blinds with shutters?
Only where it pays off. Shutters make the most difference in bedrooms, street-facing rooms and the living room; the included blinds can stay in secondary bedrooms, the laundry and the garage. Keep the blinds you take down in case you sell.
Is Shutter Boys connected to Lennar?
No. We make made-to-measure wood shutters that many new-home owners add after closing. Everything here about Lennar comes from its own published pages.
Sources
- The Lennar Homebuying Journey: A Step-by-Step Guide (Aug 2026), Lennar (manufacturer’s own claim)
- New homes for sale in Manvel (Houston), TX, Lennar (manufacturer’s own claim)
- Everything’s Included (Boise), Lennar (manufacturer’s own claim)
- Lennar releases Rhine Valley in Schertz to the public, Lennar (manufacturer’s own claim)
- Kingston South, National plan home listing (Estero, Florida), Lennar (manufacturer’s own claim)
- Warranty, Lennar (manufacturer’s own claim)
- Buying a house, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (government)
- Ceiling Fans, ENERGY STAR (US EPA and DOE) (government)
- Smart Thermostats, ENERGY STAR (US EPA and DOE) (government)
- Charging Electric Vehicles at Home, US Department of Energy, Alternative Fuels Data Center (government)
- Homeowner’s Guide to Going Solar, US Department of Energy (government)
- Database of State Incentives for Renewables & Efficiency, NC Clean Energy Technology Center, NC State University (university extension)
- WaterSense: Outdoors, US Environmental Protection Agency (government)
- Go cordless with window coverings to avoid risk of strangulation to infants and children (2021), US Consumer Product Safety Commission (government)