Toll Brothers upgrades: the Design Studio, what to choose first, and what to add after settlement

Updated October 25, 2026

The short version: Toll’s Design Studio starts with the kitchen, the primary bath and the main-floor flooring, and those are the right places for the big money, because they’re built in. Window treatments aren’t on the Design Studio’s list, so you’ll add them yourself. A home finished to Toll’s standard deserves windows finished to the same standard: moulded frames, wider louvers, and a paint or stain that matches what you chose in the studio.

Shutter Boys and Shade Boys aren’t connected with Toll Brothers. What follows about Toll Brothers comes from its own published pages, linked in the sources; the rest is our own advice.

How the Toll Brothers Design Studio works

Toll describes its Design Studio as the place to “Create a home that’s truly your own”. The experience begins “shortly after you sign your Sales Agreement”, and appointment schedules arrive “Within a few days”^[2]. It runs in a set order:

1. Orientation, which covers “the process, deadlines, and next steps before design decisions are made”^[2].
2. A virtual Style Consultation, where your consultant will “Review included features and available personalization options”. A Style Survey asks about cabinetry, countertops, flooring and your overall aesthetic^[2].
3. In-studio appointments, “in one visit or a few appointments”. Foundational spaces come first, “such as the kitchen, primary bath, and flooring for main living areas”, then interior details, home technology, wellness features, lighting, fireplace features and the rest. Design Consultants “guide you decision by decision”^[2].

How many visits you need, and when, depends on the “construction stage of your home”^[2]. If you’re buying a quick move-in home, the choices may already be made: Toll’s Designer Appointed Collections are finish packages “Expertly curated by design professionals and inspired by our gorgeous model homes”, offered in quick move-in homes and as a starting point for build-to-order homes, in styles such as Modern Farmhouse, Warm Contemporary and Cool Transitional^[3].

What to spend on at the studio, and what to leave

Toll’s order of appointments is also a good order of priorities. This is our own rule of thumb, not Toll’s advice:

• Spend at the studio: what’s built in and expensive to redo: cabinetry, countertops, flooring, tile, plumbing fixtures, fireplace surrounds, and any wiring you want in the walls and ceilings, from home technology to fan-rated boxes in the bedrooms and great room.
• Leave for after settlement: what fixes to finished surfaces. Window treatments, decorative lighting you can swap, and hardware. Toll’s own furnishing advice is not to “feel pressured to buy every piece to fill your home right away”, and to “go neutral with paint, window treatments, and art”^[4].
• Note before you leave the studio: the trim colour, its brand and its sheen, and the stain names on cabinetry and floors. They’re what you’ll match the shutters to.

Window treatments in a Toll Brothers home

The Design Studio page doesn’t list window treatments among its selections^[2], so most Toll owners choose their own. In a larger home with tall main-floor windows, the decision usually splits by room:

• Bedrooms and street-facing rooms: shutters. They give privacy at any louver angle and look like part of the house rather than something hung in front of it.
• Studies and dining rooms: shutters with a moulded frame, often stained or painted to match the millwork. These are the rooms where the finish is seen up close.
• Walls of glass, two-storey windows and wide sliders: often better served by shades, motorized where you can’t reach. That’s where our sister company’s indoor shades come in (below).
• Arched and transom windows: we make arched and shaped shutters, or you can leave the top bare and shutter the rectangle below. Arched window shutters

Finishes that suit a Toll home

Our three moulding levels, paint stages and louver sizes mix freely. Here is one 36 × 60 in window in three builds, priced from our live price list in US dollars before tax and shipping:

A stain match on poplar matches the colour you name, not the grain of oak or walnut beside it: poplar is a tight-grained hardwood that takes stain with some variation from board to board. If the match to your cabinetry matters, order one window first and look at it in the room’s light. Why poplar

From Sales Agreement to the first year

The middle column comes from Toll’s pages; the last is our suggestion. Your own Limited Warranty sets the coverage periods, so check it rather than relying on any summary online.

The pre-settlement step is the one that counts most for windows. Toll’s Home Care Guide says “Any of these defects not noted on the Pre-Settlement Orientation form are your responsibility”^[6]. A scratched sill or a cracked casing noted then is Toll’s to fix; noticed after a shutter is fitted, it’s an argument. After settlement, use the online form: Toll says that if a request is made “in person, over the phone, or using social media, we cannot guarantee that the request will be processed in a timely manner”^[7], and its Home Care Guide says “We cannot accept oral requests for non-emergency warranty service”^[6]. In New Jersey, the state’s New Home Warranty Program sets its own notice steps and deadlines^[8].

The first year: wood moves, and so do shutters

Toll’s Home Care Guide is plain about it: “Being a natural material, the wood in your home will shrink.” Baseboards, mouldings and trim may “work out of position”, and steady temperature and humidity in the first year reduce the shrinkage^[6]. It also lists moisture released by new building materials in the first few months among the causes of window condensation^[6]. Our shutters are wood too, so the same advice protects them:

• Measure once the trim is finished, and look at each casing joint as you do. If one has opened, report it before the shutter goes in.
• Keep the house’s humidity steady in the first winter. Run bathroom fans and keep louvers open in the morning so air reaches the glass. Shutters and condensation
• Screw into the opening, not the window. Our install guide fixes the frame to the sides or top of the opening. Keep screws out of the window unit itself and away from its caulk; Toll’s guide asks owners to inspect caulking twice a year and to keep weep holes clear^[6].
• Ask the association about anything outside. Toll’s guide notes that “Many improvements to the interior or exterior or to the property will require approvals”^[6]. Interior shutters rarely need one; patio shades usually do.

What a whole house adds up to

Most Toll homes have more windows than our example below, but the staging works the same way: bedrooms first, the main floor next, the rest last. Here it is in our basic build; the moulded and stained builds above cost more per window.

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.

Questions to ask your Design Consultant

These are questions, not claims about what Toll offers; the answers vary by community.

• Does this community offer any window treatments, and are they installed before settlement?
• What are the trim paint’s brand, colour and sheen, and the stain names on the cabinetry and floors?
• Which windows open, which way do the handles and cranks project, and how deep is each window return?
• Which ceilings will have fan-rated boxes, and can you pre-wire for motorized shades at tall windows?
• Is there anything you’d rather I didn’t fix to inside the window openings during the warranty period?

After settlement: the upgrades worth planning

These are the upgrades new-home owners most often add in their first year, with the agencies that publish useful guidance on each. Read your association’s rules before anything goes outside.

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.

Toll Brothers areas we cover

Toll builds in more than 20 states and Washington, DC^[1]. Our region pages show local housing and weather figures and what they mean for shutters: Texas, Arizona, California, Florida, North Carolina, Georgia, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Colorado, Nevada, Idaho and Washington.