What café style actually is
Café style covers the lower section of the window only, leaving the top open to the sky. The height is entirely yours to set. We usually take the line from a glazing bar, a meeting rail or the sill height of the room, because a line that follows something already in the window looks intentional and a line that floats does not.
Full height covers the whole opening in one run of panels, with an optional hidden split or visible mid-rail so the upper and lower louvres tilt independently.
Side by side
| Café style | Full height | |
|---|---|---|
| Daylight | Excellent. The top of the window is permanently clear. | Good, and fully adjustable, but tilting louvres always takes some light. |
| Privacy by day | Complete at pavement level. | Complete, at the cost of light unless you use a split. |
| Privacy after dark | None above the shutter line. Lit rooms are visible from outside. | Complete when closed. |
| Cost | Lower. Less shutter, fewer panels. | The standard baseline. |
| Character | Informal, continental, very at home in a kitchen. | Architectural and calm. |
| Best suited to | Street level kitchens, front facing living rooms, window seats. | Bedrooms, rear rooms, upper floors, whole house schemes. |
Street facing homes
This is the case café style was invented for. On a terraced or semi detached house where the pavement runs a couple of metres from the glass, the sight line problem is entirely below head height. Cover that and the problem is gone, and the room keeps the light coming in above it.
The limitation is honest and worth stating: after dark, with the lights on, anyone outside can see the ceiling and the upper part of the room. In a kitchen most people do not mind. In a front sitting room where you watch television in the evening, many do, and tier-on-tier is the better answer there.
Period properties
On a Victorian sash, café style works particularly well because the meeting rail gives a natural line to work to, and leaving the upper sash clear preserves the proportions of a tall window.
On a modern casement with no divisions, the shutter line is arbitrary and has to be chosen carefully. Set it too low and it reads as an accident.
Bedrooms and upper floors
We would rarely specify café style in a bedroom. You want the option of covering the whole window, and a shutter that cannot do that is the wrong tool.
Upper floor windows are the interesting case. Overlooking is often minimal on a first floor, so full height panels are a look rather than a necessity, and café style can be a smart way to keep a landing or a box room bright while spending less.
A working kitchen is where café style earns its keep. Privacy from the path outside, the whole top of the window left clear for light over the worktop, and a shutter that costs less than dressing the full opening would have.
From our projects
Café style in a working kitchen
Privacy at the sink, daylight everywhere else.
See the project
