Our Factory Team

Over the past 30 years, we have assembled a tight-knit work family in our Austin Southern Shutters factory, where we create the finished products that ultimately go in our customers' homes. The first step happens in your home, where our factory reps take precise measurements and create diagrams for each of your windows and doors that need shutters. From there, those diagrams are delivered to our design team at the factory. The diagrams are then put into a computer and double-checked.

After that, lists of parts to cut are printed out and handed out to different staff members to begin crafting the individual parts for each shutter. The parts are cut, holes and drilled and then each shutter panel is assembled. The shutter panels are taken to the fabbing department, where they do the beautiful custom framing and trim work that give that "built-with-your-home" finished look.

Once assembled, each shutter heads off to the paint department, where our paint team begins all the extensive prep work needed to get the perfect, luxurious finish our shutters are known for. After being painted, the shutters are taken to the Quality Control department to make sure the paint is perfect and no imperfections occurred during the drying process.

Once they are cured, our installers take the shutters to our customers' homes and fit them into the windows and doors they were designed for. While the most important design work is done in the factory, sometimes there are slight inconsistencies in a window frame that require expert adjustments by our installation team, who are experienced craftsmen and woodworkers.

Every Step of Our Process is Designed to Craft Luxurious Shutters Built to Last a Lifetime

Here in the picture on the left, you can see one of our staff members sanding a shutter panel. The key to any good paint job is the prep work. Each panel is sanded, primed, sanded again, primed again in some cases, and then painted with 3 coats of paint or stain. In the picture on the right, you can see our woodworking craftsmen working in the fabbing department. This is where the shutter frames are created. Now that the shutter panels have been built, the frames and custom trim are built around the panels. This process ensures that shutter fits perfectly inside the frame. This is also where we add the custom details to our frames that give the finished product that has that built-with-your-house look.

We Have an Entire Team and Exclusive Process Dedicated to Painting and Staining Our Shutters. That's How We Get the Perfect Finish – Every Time

We like to think of shutters as furniture for your windows – and that means having the highest quality paint or stained finish. To start the process, if you have the name of the paint that was used on the trim in your home, we'll take that info and use it to buy the exact same paint. From there, we'll dip a solid basswood louver in the paint to create a sample. As part of our impeccable quality assurance, we mail or deliver the sample to you, where you can hold it right up against the window sill where the shutter will be installed. This is how we ensure the paint was mixed properly and no errors were made at the paint store. If a customer doesn't know the name of the paint used on their window sill, we have our own process to match the paint and send the test sample. If stain is involved, we bring many samples of stained basswood into your home to get a nearly perfect match. We have hundreds of stain samples that are all unique blends, exclusive to Southern Shutters, allowing us to get the perfect match for your home. The wood drinks the stain, so we blend the stain differently depending on the desired end result. As with the paint, our customers confirm the stain match before we proceed with building the final product.

Our Arch Department – Timeless Craftsmanship Right Here in The Lone Star State

Shutters are the only window covering that truly works inside of an arch. Other window coverings cover the arch completely or awkwardly. For the trim around square or rectangular window shutters, we simply buy the same local trim that was used by local Austin contractors in your home's construction. For the trim around arches, we create the perfectly matching trim right here in our factory.

To build our arched window shutters, first, the factory reps take many measurements to make sure that we understand your arch.

We create what's called a "blank" -the computer router makes the arched pieces of wood for the shutter. We have special knives for the computerized router that allow us to match all of the trims that we have in the central Texas/Austin area. These are called profiles. This is how we are able to match the trim on the arch, so that is the same as what you have throughout your house and on the other shutters. Once the arch is applied to the shutter, they begin constructing the frame. From there, a different person will start to add the louvers to the arch, which you can open and close, allowing precise control of both light and privacy in your home.

The Louver Assembly Team Checks and Double Checks Each Louver for Uniform Quality and Functionality

Here you can see one of our shutters craftsmen working with the louvers, which are known as the guts of the shutter. This is the heart of the assembly department. First, every single louver is checked to ensure straightness. Many other companies grab the louvers and stick them in the machine without checking them for uniformity and determining that they all work together.

After the louvers are examined for straightness, they are then stacked to make sure that they all function together and will result in consistent light gaps. The louvers are then fit into the machine behind him, which will bore the hole for the louver pin. 

The machine inserts the louver pin, staples the louver, attaching the louver to the tilt rod. If it's a hidden tilt rod versus a standard tilt rod, it will bore the required hole to attach the tilt rod, which is attached by hand after the assembly. For this part of the manufacturing process, the computerized machine process for our louvers ensures that the mechanisms of the shutter are consistent. The holes are bored exactly where they need to be so that there's no human error.