Free, Low-Pressure, and Built Around Your Home

How the Elizabeth Shutters In-Home Design Consultation Works

Elizabeth Shutters' in-home design consultation is a complimentary, guided visit where a design specialist measures your windows or closet openings, reviews your style goals, and helps you select the right configurations and finishes using portable samples in your own light. You'll receive a clear quote based on exact measurements — not estimates. If you move forward, your order is built locally in Colton, California and installed by our own team, with full hardware adjustment and alignment before we leave.

Most people don't schedule a shutter consultation because they're browsing. They schedule it because they're done guessing — done living with afternoon glare, front windows that feel exposed, or closet doors that rattle and drag through an otherwise well-designed room.

Custom shutters and custom closet doors aren't products you size from a dropdown and order online. They're built to your specific openings, your trim profile, and your home's architecture. Getting that right requires a real measurement, real samples in your real light, and a designer who can connect what you're describing to what will actually work in the space. That's what the consultation is for.

We offer it free of charge because it's the only way to do this correctly.

Why measuring in person changes the outcome

California and Nevada homes are not standardized. Window openings aren't always square. Trim depth varies from room to room and sometimes window to window within the same room. Arched and angled windows need physical templates. Even the direction a window crank swings can affect the correct shutter configuration.

A designer who measures your openings in person notes the details that change the build — depth, trim profile, mounting conditions, obstructions, squareness — and those details determine whether finished shutters look built-in or like they were forced to fit.

Finish selection is the other thing that only works in person. White is not one white. A color that reads warm and clean in a showroom can look flat or cool in a north-facing bedroom. Choosing finishes in your actual light — morning sun, afternoon west exposure, overcast coastal light — is how you avoid the most expensive mistake in this category: a technically correct product that's visually wrong for the space.

There's no workaround for that. You need the samples in the room.

How to schedule

Request a consultation through our website or call 1-800-748-8377 to speak with a designer directly. The appointment is free, and we come to you.

We serve homeowners across California and Nevada — Los Angeles, Orange County, San Diego, the Bay Area, Sacramento, the Inland Empire, Las Vegas, Henderson, Reno, Lake Tahoe, and surrounding communities. If you're outside our in-home service area — a second home, a vacation property, or an out-of-state renovation — we also offer virtual design consultations and can coordinate shipping and contractor installation.

What we bring

Think of it as a portable showroom, not a sales visit. We bring what you need to make real decisions in real time: finish samples, configuration examples, louver size references, and visual material to help you see how options translate from sample to full window scale.

The goal is for you to leave the consultation with a clear picture of what you're getting — not a mood board and a follow-up call.

What happens during the consultation

We start with what's not working

Before we measure anything, we have a conversation. We want to understand what's not working today and what you want to be true after the install.

For shutters, that usually sounds like: the afternoon sun is making the living room unusable, the street-facing bedroom feels exposed, or the windows look unfinished and you want something that reads architectural. For closet doors, it often sounds like: the mirrored sliders feel dated, the bifolds drag off the track, or the room is otherwise well-designed and the closet wall is still the thing you haven't fixed.

That conversation shapes every recommendation that follows. The right configuration is tied to how you use the space, not just how you want it to look.

We measure every opening — correctly

Width and height are the starting point. What actually matters is everything else: the depth of the window recess, the trim profile and how it sits, mounting conditions, whether the opening is square, how panels will stack when open, and whether anything near the window — a crank, an alarm sensor, an air register — affects the design.

For specialty windows — arches, radius tops, bays, corners, or unusually wide openings — those notes become critical. They determine how the shutter is engineered so it holds its shape, operates smoothly, and looks correct against the architecture rather than fighting it.

This is the part most homeowners underestimate and the part most quotes skip when they're done remotely. A small measurement error in a custom product isn't a small problem. It's a visible gap, a panel that binds, or a frame that never quite closes flush.

We review finishes and configuration options together

Once we have measurements, we bring the samples into context. We look at your existing trim color, your flooring, your cabinetry — the visual anchors the shutters will live alongside — and we work through finish direction from there.

Paint and stain options can be matched to existing trim color when needed. If you have a specific white, a warm cream, or a stained tone that needs to match hardwood floors or cabinetry, that conversation happens here. So does louver size — the decision that changes the entire visual weight of the window. Wider louvers feel more modern and open; smaller louvers suit traditional architecture and tighter window scales. Seeing the difference in person, against your window, is different from seeing it in a photo.

For closet doors, we talk through configuration — sliding bypass, bifold, or hinged — based on your room layout and how you actually use the closet. If you're interested in glass, mirror, or specialty material options, we cover those too. The consultation is where those choices get made clearly, not guessed at.

You receive a quote based on exact measurements

This is where the consultation pays off directly. Instead of a ballpark figure based on photos or assumed sizing, your quote is built from what we actually measured — the real configuration, the real panel count, the real installation conditions.

When homeowners compare bids and find significant price differences, the most common reason is that the quotes aren't quoting the same thing. Different material tiers, different frame styles, estimated rather than measured panel counts. Our consultation eliminates that ambiguity. You know exactly what you're getting and exactly what it costs.

What happens after you say yes

Once you decide to move forward, we finalize specifications and move your order into production at our Colton, California workshop. Everything is built here — not shipped from overseas, not assembled from imported components. Our manufacturing and installation teams are the same people accountable to the finished result.

When your order is ready, our installation team handles the full install. Panels are fitted within the frame for precise alignment. Hinges, magnets, and tension adjustments are made before we leave so everything operates cleanly from day one. Most projects are completed within 4 to 6 weeks from consultation to installation, though timing can vary by project scope, season, and the number of openings involved.

12-month same-as-cash financing is available for qualifying projects if you'd like to spread the investment.

How to prepare for your appointment

You don't need to stage anything. A few things that make the visit more productive:

Clear reasonable access to the windows and closet openings you want addressed. If heavy furniture is blocking tight corners, moving it before the appointment saves time.

Don't remove window hardware — cranks, screens, sensors, alarm contacts. Just point them out. We design around them, not over them.

Have decision-makers in the room if you can. Finish and configuration choices happen during the consultation, and they're faster and cleaner when the people who care about the result are present.

If you have inspiration images, bring one or two. We're looking for directional signals — what feels right to you — not a finished mood board.

What a good consultation is not

If a company quotes shutters or closet doors without measuring, you're absorbing the risk of that shortcut. Custom products are unforgiving. A small measurement error becomes a visible gap, a panel that binds, or a frame that never sits flush against the trim.

A good consultation also shouldn't feel like a closing tactic. You're making a decision that becomes part of your home's architecture. A professional should be comfortable explaining trade-offs, answering hard questions about materials and configurations, and letting you think. We've been doing this since 1981. Our business is built on clients who come back and who refer their neighbors — not on rushed decisions made under pressure.

Ready to schedule?

Request your free consultation here or call 1-800-748-8377. We'll confirm a time, come to your home, and give you everything you need to make a confident decision — whether that's shutters for every window in the house or one bedroom closet that's been bothering you for three years.