Plantation shutters in East Los Angeles

Plantation shutters, also called California shutters or interior window shutters, made to the measurements you take and shipped to your door in East Los Angeles. Fit them yourself, or ask us for an independent installer near you.

Design your shutters

Framed California shutters fitted across a condo window wall, in time-lapse.

Homes in East Los Angeles

East Los Angeles's 32,141 homes are a mix: 56% detached houses, 25% apartments or units in buildings of two or more homes and 18% townhouses and other attached houses.

More homes here were built before 1950 than in any later period we count: 51%. Only 6% date from 2000 or later. The median home dates from 1950. Most homes are rented: owners live in only 34%.

In Monterey Park, 2 miles away, 33% of homes are apartments, more than here. Nationally, East Los Angeles's homes are older than those in 94% of the 881 US cities we have census figures for.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-year estimates, 2020–2024. Estimates carry margins of error.

Plaster walls and deep casings

51% of homes date from before 1950, when walls were plaster on lath and windows sat in deep wood casings. Plaster cracks if you drive screws carelessly: drill a pilot hole, use fixings made for plaster, and fix into the casing or the framing behind it. A deep casing is good news for an inside mount; measure its depth before you choose a louver size.

How to install

Out-of-square openings

With 84% of homes built before 1980, many openings have had decades to settle. Measure each one's width at the top, middle and bottom, and both diagonals. If the diagonals differ by more than about ¼ inch, add a mounting frame in the designer, or choose an outside mount so the shutter covers the uneven edges.

How to measure

Renting?

66% of homes are rented. Shutters screw into the window frame or casing, so ask your landlord before you install; taking them down later leaves only screw holes to fill.

Townhouses

18% of homes share a wall with the next one. Their front windows face the street side by side with the neighbours', so many owners pick a louver size and a white or off-white finish that sit well beside the houses on either side. Bay windows on townhouses usually need a separate panel set for each face.

Bay window shutters

A whole house in East Los Angeles

The most common home in East Los Angeles has two bedrooms: 40% of homes. Three-bedroom homes make up another 25%. The median home has 4.3 rooms.

Detached houses are the most common kind of home here. Across the US, the middle home among detached houses has 10 to 15 windows (EIA, 2020). Shuttering that many windows at a typical bedroom-window size comes to roughly $3,200 to $6,000. For scale, that's about 0.7% of the median home value here, $643,100 (owners’ estimates, 2020–2024).

Homes here are smaller than in 97% of the 881 US cities we have figures for: many orders are a few rooms, not a whole house.

Sources: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-year estimates, 2020–2024 (bedrooms B25041, rooms B25018, value B25077); U.S. Energy Information Administration, Residential Energy Consumption Survey 2020, Table HC2.1 (windows). EIA RECS 2020, Table HC2.1

A typical home10–15 windows

All of them shuttered$3,200 to $6,000

Every window priced as a 36 × 48 in opening in our basic build (flat moulding, paint stage 1, 3½ in louvers), before tax and shipping. Your windows will differ; the designer prices each one.

Price your own windows

Older homes, high values

Owners here value their homes higher than in 81% of the 881 US cities we have figures for, and 84% of homes were built before 1980. If an older house still has good wood shutters, repair them before you replace them; if not, poplar painted to match the trim suits original casings.

Repair or replace old shutters

Ages (B01001), working from home (B08301) and value (B25077): U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 5-year estimates, 2020–2024. Rankings compare the US cities we have figures for.

East Los Angeles weather and your shutters

At Los Angeles Dwtn Usc Campus, CA (4 mi away), August averages a high of 84°F and December a low of 48.2°F. No month averages a high above 85°F or a low below freezing.

About 25 days a year reach 90°F, 0 nights fall to freezing and 14.2 inches of precipitation falls, most of it around February and least in July.

Daylight runs from 14 h 25 min on the longest day to 9 h 53 min on the shortest, and the midday sun stands 79° above the horizon in June and 33° in December.

Source: NOAA U.S. Climate Normals 1991–2020, Los Angeles Dwtn Usc Campus, CA (temperature) and Los Angeles Dwtn Usc Campus, CA (precipitation, 4 mi away). Daylight and sun height: calculated from the city’s latitude.

Average daily low to high, by month.

Monthly figures

Monthly climate normals
Month	Average high	Average low	Precipitation
Jan	68°F	48.9°F	3.3 in
Feb	68°F	50°F	3.6 in
Mar	69.9°F	52.4°F	2.2 in
Apr	72.4°F	54.8°F	0.7 in
May	73.7°F	58.1°F	0.3 in
Jun	77.2°F	61.4°F	0.1 in
Jul	82°F	64.7°F	0 in
Aug	84°F	65.4°F	0 in
Sep	83°F	64.2°F	0.1 in
Oct	78.6°F	59.9°F	0.6 in
Nov	72.9°F	53.1°F	0.8 in
Dec	67.4°F	48.2°F	2.5 in

Dry summers, wet winters

Barely any of the year's precipitation falls in June, July and August; most comes in the cool months. Wood takes on moisture in the wet season and gives it back in the dry one, so expect the panels to feel slightly tighter in winter than in summer. Fit them in the season you're in, and leave the hinge screws a quarter turn from tight until they've been through both.

Fitting them in East Los Angeles

Shutter Boys shutters are made for you to fit yourself: an inside or outside mount takes a drill, a level and our step-by-step guide. If you'd rather hire someone, a finish carpenter or blinds installer can fit them; ask on your quote and we'll tell you if we know one near you. You arrange and pay the installer directly.

How to install · How to measure

Near East Los Angeles

More about shutters in East Los Angeles

Each page takes one question further (fitting your windows, room by room, sizes and colours, louvers, or how shutters compare with other choices), using East Los Angeles’s own figures.

For designers, contractors and stores in East Los Angeles

Interior designers, contractors, window covering stores, realtors and property managers in East Los Angeles can sell or refer Shutter Boys shutters: dealers buy at trade pricing with a protected area; referral partners earn a fee on each client they send. No fee to join.

Apply to the dealer program · Dealers in California

Price your windows

Pick your look once, add every window, and see each one drawn and priced. Send it to us and we reply with your quote.