Shutter BoysUpdated
The short version: we use one wood on purpose. Poplar paints beautifully, is light for a hardwood, and is real wood you can sand and repaint years from now. Its one trade-off is colour variation under a stain, and like every wood it wants air moving in a steamy room.
We make every shutter from one wood: premium American poplar, also called yellow-poplar or tulip poplar. It’s a hardwood that grows “throughout most of the eastern United States and north to central Michigan, Lake Ontario and southern Massachusetts”, according to Purdue University’s extension guide to the species[1]. Most of what follows comes from that guide and from the government research on how wood behaves indoors.
Poplar in numbers
| Property | What the guide says | What it means on a shutter |
|---|---|---|
| Weight | 29.4 lb per cubic foot at 12% moisture (about 471 kg/m³) | Light for a hardwood, so less load on the hinges |
| Paint | “Easily painted and tends to hold paint well” | A smooth finish that lasts, and can be redone |
| Shrinkage | “Intermediate” | Moves with the seasons, but not unusually |
| Machining | “Intermediate in planing, shaping, turning, and boring” | Takes a routed moulding profile cleanly |
| Colour | A wide band of white sapwood; heartwood light yellow to greenish, turning brown | Invisible under paint, visible under a stain |
Quotes and figures from Purdue’s guide[1]. The metric weight is our conversion.
Paint
Poplar has a fine, even grain. Purdue’s guide puts it plainly: the wood “is easily painted and tends to hold paint well”[1]. It also explains how poplar came to do the work a shutter does: “As western pine resources became scarce, the species was quickly readapted for moulding, trim, and interior doors”, and “Today, the species continues as a favorite for painted furniture and hidden parts”[1]. A shutter is trim that moves, so it’s the same job.
On our shutters, paint comes in three stages, and any stage goes with any moulding level. White is the standard colour; anything else, including black, a grey or a colour taken from your trim, is a colour match. Here’s how the choices price on one 36 in × 48 in window (2 panels):
| Window | US | Canada |
|---|---|---|
| Paint stage 1, white, Level 1 moulding (the basic build) | $320 – $400 | $460 – $570 CAD |
| Paint stage 2 | $400 – $500 | $580 – $720 CAD |
| Paint stage 3 | $480 – $600 | $690 – $860 CAD |
| Stage 1 with a colour match or stain | $370 – $470 | $540 – $670 CAD |
| Stage 1, Level 3 (moulded) stiles and rails | $430 – $530 | $620 – $760 CAD |
Regular prices for American poplar, before tax and shipping, from the same price list as your quote. The basic build is flat moulding, paint stage 1, 3½ in louvers. During a sale event some of these options can cost less; the designer shows the price that applies today.
Because it’s solid wood, a painted poplar shutter can be repainted later: a light sanding, a primer suited to the old finish, and new paint. That’s the long-term case for real wood over a material you can’t refinish. How to paint plantation shutters
Weight
Purdue gives yellow-poplar a weight of 29.4 pounds per cubic foot at 12% moisture content and calls it “relatively light”[1]. That matters on a shutter in a way it doesn’t on a door frame: a panel hangs from its hinges on one side, so every extra pound pulls it out of square over time. A lighter wood keeps a tall panel swinging true and makes a wide window easier to split into fewer panels.
Stain
Poplar can be stained, but go in knowing what the wood looks like. Purdue notes that “most yellow-poplar timber available today has a very wide band of white sapwood”, and that “the central heartwood column is usually a light yellow to greenish color which changes to a light to dark brown color”[1]. Both can show up in one panel, and a stain shows the difference.
You’ll sometimes read that poplar was stained to look like cherry. Purdue says that too, but about the past: “The old-growth heartwood was stained to look very much like cherry when used in furniture”[1]. Today’s timber, with its wide sapwood, is a different starting point, so a stained poplar shutter looks like natural wood with some variation, not like cherry.
| If you want | Choose | Why |
|---|---|---|
| A clean, even white | Paint, white | The standard colour, included in the price |
| Black, grey or your trim colour | Paint, colour match | Even colour; you name the exact paint |
| Visible grain and a warm wood tone | Stain | Shows the wood, including its variation |
| To match stained wood trim | A stain, named after your trim’s | Close, not identical: poplar’s colour varies within a board |
| A bathroom or kitchen | Paint | A painted surface is easier to wipe down |
Black shutters are a colour match on poplar.
How it moves
The US Forest Products Laboratory’s Wood Handbook starts its chapter on moisture with the basic fact: “Wood, like many natural materials, is hygroscopic; it takes on moisture from the surrounding environment”, and “this moisture relationship has an important influence on wood properties and performance”[3]. In heated Canadian homes, wood typically sits at about 6% moisture in winter and 12% in summer[2], and it swells and shrinks a little across the grain as it does. Purdue rates poplar’s shrinkage as “intermediate”[1]: not one of the stable woods, not one of the lively ones.
On a shutter that shows up as louvers that feel a touch firmer to tilt in a humid summer and a touch looser in a dry winter. That’s normal and it reverses. What isn’t normal is a louver that won’t hold its position at all, which is usually worn tension, not the wood, and usually a quick fix with a screwdriver. How to fix loose louvers
In bathrooms, kitchens and laundry rooms, keep the swings small:
- Run the fan during and after a shower or a long boil.
- Tilt the louvers open afterwards so steam doesn’t sit behind them.
- Wipe water off the sill and the bottom rail rather than letting it dry there.
- Keep the paint whole: a chip on a bottom rail is where water gets into bare wood. Touch it up.
If your windows run wet in winter, that’s a humidity problem the shutters can make worse by holding still air against the glass. Shutters and window condensation · Cleaning and care
How to tell what a wood shutter is made of
“Wood shutters” on a quote can mean solid hardwood, a softwood, or a wood-look material. A few checks work on any seller’s sample or showroom panel, ours included:
- Ask for the species by name. “Hardwood” or “premium wood” isn’t an answer. Ours is American poplar, Liriodendron tulipifera, on every panel.
- Feel the weight. Solid vinyl with an aluminum core is generally heavier than painted hardwood, and hollow or foam-filled panels can be lighter. A panel that feels surprisingly heavy or surprisingly light is worth a question.
- Look at a cut end. The end of a louver or a stile shows real end grain on wood, and a uniform cross-section on a moulded material.
- Ask what happens in ten years. Real wood can be sanded and repainted. Ask any seller how their material is refinished, and whether the warranty still holds if you do.
What’s inside composite and MDF shutters
Why one wood, not a menu
Many shutter sellers offer a ladder: a vinyl, a composite, a “good” wood and a “best” wood. We decided against it. A single wood means every shutter we make is the one we’d recommend, every price on the site is for real wood, and you don’t have to decode which grade you’re being quoted.
| Feature | Shutter Boys: one wood | A seller with a material ladder |
|---|---|---|
| What every price is for | Solid American poplar | Whichever tier the quote happens to be |
| What you choose | Louver width, moulding, paint, colour, how it opens | All of that, plus which material |
| Comparing prices | Like for like on every page | Check the tier on each line |
| Refinishing later | Sand and repaint; it’s wood | Depends on the material |
| Steamy rooms | Paint, a fan and open louvers; not inside a shower | Ask what each tier is suited to |
The trade-off is honest: we don’t sell a shutter for inside a shower or for a room that floods with steam and has no fan. For those, we’d rather say so than sell you a lesser material under the same name. Wood vs vinyl shutters, with sources
Room by room
| Room | What to choose |
|---|---|
| Living and dining room | Any paint stage; a stain if you like the grain |
| Bedrooms | Any paint stage, or a stain |
| Kitchen, bathroom, laundry | Paint, and keep the air moving |
| Matching existing trim | A colour match |
| Inside a shower or over a tub that gets soaked | Not wood. Bathroom shutters |
Common questions
Is poplar a good wood for shutters?
For painted shutters, yes. It’s a relatively light hardwood with a fine, even grain that takes paint smoothly and holds it, which is why it’s long been used for painted trim, mouldings, interior doors and furniture.
Is poplar a hardwood or a softwood?
A hardwood. Yellow-poplar (Liriodendron tulipifera) is a broadleaf tree from the magnolia family (Magnoliaceae, per the USDA Forest Service’s Silvics of North America); despite the name, it isn’t a true poplar.
Can poplar shutters be stained?
Yes, but poplar’s natural colour varies from creamy white sapwood to yellow, green and brown heartwood, sometimes in one board, and a stain shows that. If you want one even colour, choose paint or a colour match.
How heavy is poplar?
Purdue University’s extension guide gives yellow-poplar a weight of 29.4 pounds per cubic foot at 12% moisture content, which it calls relatively light. Lighter panels put less load on hinges, which matters most on tall panels.
Will poplar shutters warp in a humid room?
All real wood takes on and gives off moisture, and swells and shrinks a little as it does. Paint slows that down and a fan keeps the swings small. Bathrooms with a fan are fine; inside a shower, or where the panels get soaked, wood isn’t the right choice.
Why is some poplar green?
The heartwood of yellow-poplar is often light yellow to greenish, and it darkens toward brown with time. Under paint you never see it. Under a stain you do.
Sources
- Yellow-poplar (FNR-293-W), Purdue University Extension (university extension)
- Canadian Building Digest 244: Effects of wood shrinkage in buildings (A.T. Hansen, 1987), National Research Council Canada (copy hosted by MIT) (government)
- Wood handbook, chapter 4: Moisture relations and physical properties of wood (FPL-GTR-282, 2021), USDA Forest Service, Forest Products Laboratory (government)
- Silvics of North America, Vol. 2: Liriodendron tulipifera L. (yellow-poplar), USDA Forest Service, Agriculture Handbook 654 (government)