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Beautiful Dining

Bath Shutter with Frosted Glass

Single Shutter Open

Single Shutter

Looking Outside

Modern Black Hinges Open

Modern Black Hinges

Frosted Glass

Shutter Anatomy

Features & Benefits

Feature:

All shutters from G&L Custom Shutters are custom made to your exact specifications.

Benefit:

Custom-made shutters assure correct spacing of all panels within a frame, giving you a professional appearance.

Feature:

Four louver sizes are available: 1 7⁄8”, 2 1⁄2”, 3 1⁄2″ and 4 1⁄2”.

Benefit:

G&L Custom Shutters fits into any decorating style, on any size window.

Feature:

G&L Custom Shutters are available in 26 pre-selected colors. We will custom stain and paint to match any other color required for an additional charge.

Benefit:

You can use our shutters for virtually any color scheme.

Feature:

Kiln-dried basswood is used on all shutters.

Benefit:

Basswood, a North American hardwood, resists warping and shrinking, and reduces the chance of sagging in large panels. Its uniform grain pattern provides a smooth, even stained appearance.

Feature:

Tension Screws.

Benefit:

Over a period of time, the operating tension of the louvers has a tendency to loosen. The tension screw in the stile allows you to either tighten or loosen the louvers to customize the tension, for the life of the shutter.

Feature:

All adjoining panels are rabbeted.

Benefit:

Rabbeting allows panels to overlap each other when closed to prevent light gaps. This gives you a complete finished look.

Feature:

Nylon hinge pins are used to turn the louvers.

Benefit:

Nylon pins eliminate the problem of shrinking, swelling, and wear with movement associated with using wood dowels on the louvers. This allows you to consistently move the louvers easily. The nylon pins also have a spacer, providing uniform clearance between louver and stile, and prevents wear with operation

Feature:

Wood dowels are used to join the stiles to the rails.

Benefit:

Doweling adds strength and durability to the panel, preventing sagging and separation.

Feature:

Hinges are non-mortised.

Benefit:

Non-mortised hinges provide the complete closure of the panel and prevents light gaps.

Feature:

All shutters carry a limited lifetime warranty against defects in material and construction.

Benefit:

You can feel confident using G&L Custom Shutters.

Feature:

Arched windows can be accommodated with either a horizontal arch or a sunburst arch that are functional as well as stylish. Moveable louvers are standard on a sunburst half-circle arch (when the height is approximately one-half the width) and elongated arches (when the height is greater than one-half the width). Eyebrow arches (when the height is less than one-half the width) may have limited louver movement. Horizontal arches have moveable louvers in the majority of the panel, the top few louvers may be fixed.

Benefit:

You have design flexibility in treating an arch window, or creating an arched look from a rectangular window.

Materials

BASSWOOD TREE OR AMERICAN LINDEN TREE

COMMON NAMES: AMERICAN BASSWOOD, BEE TREE, WHITEWOOD, LIMETREE.
ALL INFORMATION REPRODUCED FROM AN ARTICLE BY LESLIE DAY

In late June and early July, can you smell a sweet, haunting fragrance wafting around the city? It comes from the American Linden or Basswood tree, a large tree, growing up to 130 feet tall with a trunk diameter of 2 to 3 feet, and a rounded crown. The bark is furrowed with large “S” shaped ridges going up the trunk. There are several as you enter Riverside Park at 79th and Riverside Drive and start walking north. There are more at the southern end of the park. Walk up the hill past the running tract, go through the tunnel and as you come out and head up to 74th Street and Riverside, you will pass several Lindens both on your left and on your right.

The Linden is often planted as a shade or street tree because of its fairly rapid rate of growth, plentiful shade and fragrant flowers. In cities its fruit are eaten by squirrels, while in the country its fruit are eaten by chipmunks and other small rodents. White-tailed deer and cottontail rabbits eat the bark and sprouts during the winter. Old basswoods are very frequently hollow, making excellent nesting and den sites for many kinds of birds and mammals.

FLOWER

The fragrant flowers of the Linden tree hang from the middle of leafy, ribbon-like green bracts in long-stalked clusters. The flowers are tiny, with 5 yellowish-white petals. During the last weeks of June and first weeks of July they exude a powerful, haunting scent that can be detected up to a mile away. The flowers possess a nectar which attracts bees and produces a strong flavored honey. When this tree is in flower it will be full of bees, hence its common name “Bee Tree”. During the three weeks that the Lindens bloom, bees forsake most other flowers. The honey that they make of Linden nectar is white in color, and regarded as high in quality. The flowers when gathered and dried can be used to make tea. During the flowering period, the people that manufacture perfumes use the heady scent for their products.

Bark

The Linden’s inner bark is fibrous and can be twisted and woven into cords, ropes and matting. Native Americans of the Northeastern tribes used it to make bags to carry food in and thongs. Rope was made from it by “retting” – keeping the bark under water for about a month, until the soft tissues rotted away leaving the fibrous tissue. Thread made of Basswood bark was used to stitch together mats made of cattail leaves and the bark was used to bind up warriors wounds. The Iroquois carved masks from the sapwood on the living tree and then split it off from the trunk and hollowed it out from behind.

Habitat

The Linden prefers moist soils of valleys and uplands; in hardwood forests.

Fruit

When the flowers go to seed they form small nutlets that contain l to 2 seeds each, clustered beneath large leafy wing bracts which act as parachutes as they carry the seeds to the ground. The fruits are woody and about the size of peas.

Leaves

The leaves are heart-shaped, 4-6 inches long, 3-4 inches wide, dark green with extremely shiny undersides. When the wind blows, the leaf blades are flung over to reveal a glistening bright underside.

Wood

Linden wood is soft and creamy, and it is much favored by woodcarvers because of its workability (it is said to “cut like cheese”) and its even grain. In past centuries it was used to make ship’s figureheads and cigar-store Indians. Today it is used for broom handles, beehive frames, piano sounding boards and certain parts of guitars.

Range

Quebec south to Delaware, Atlantic coast west to Eastern Kentucky.

MYTHOLOGY

The Green Dryads or tree spirits were said to be wedded to Linden trees. In Roman mythology the Linden tree was a symbol of conjugal love and fidelity.