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A sun room with plantation shutters is the perfect combination. A sun room allows you the pleasure of bringing the outside in without wind, rain or the elements so you have a chance to enjoy the outdoors all year round. By installing plantation shutters, you not only make an attractive design statement but you add a layer of protection against the elements in your sun room.

Plantation shutters are basically shutters that can be mounted either inside a window or outside a window. They have adjustable louvers so you can regulate the amount of light and have some climate control on your sun room. Plantation shutters in your sun room can also keep drafts out from any cracks around the windows.

There are several materials that may be used to create plantation shutters such as:

1. Old-fashioned hard wood;
2. Polyurethane;
3. Poly-vinyl; and
4. A composite mix of a resin glue and sawdust to look like wood.

Wood shutters may be painted or have a stained finished. You can also purchase unfinished wood shutters and paint or stain them yourself. Either way, be sure to choose a weatherproof wood finish for plantation shutters that will stand up to the seasons for timeless, elegant appeal in your sun room.

Poly plantation shutters have been perfected so much that it is virtually impossible to tell the difference between them and painted wood shutters. Poly is weatherproof, durable and cleans up easily. Finally, though composite is the least expensive, it is also the most risky with regard to durability because it combines wood chips and glue. Also, composite will swell up in moist environments, so it is not advisable in a sun room.

Now that you have decided that plantation shades are the ideal way to finish off your sun room oasis, you need to measure your windows to get the right size. Determine whether you want interior or exterior plantation shutters prior to taking measurements.

Once you know which plantation shutters you want, use a steel tape measure for accuracy to take the window dimensions. All heights and widths should be measured to an eighth of an inch. First, measure across the bottom, middle and top of the window and take the largest measurement of the three. Finally, you need to take an accurate measurement from the top of the window sill to the top of the window molding. Once you have measurements, you are ready to get plantation shutters to beautify and protect your place in the sun – your sun room!

To protect yourself against the weather while your bask in your sun room, consider installing attractive and functional plantation shutters. They offer an element of coziness and old world charm to any space while keeping out the blistering summer sun that fades furniture and increases home cooling costs.

What could be more glorious than a holiday table laden with fruit? Fruit is nature’s bounty and an eloquent symbol of its richness. The Dutch and Flemish masters immortalized fruit, as well as flowers, in their prettiest still lifes. But it was the French, during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, who refined fruit centerpieces into soaring pyramids of glistening cherries and grapes; elaborate epergnes whose branches were filled with strawberries, figs, and miniature apples; or a single golden pineapple served up on a pedestal.

The French built centerpieces in a variety of vessels, mixing real fruit, flowers, and leaves with ceramic fruit. Sometimes the fruit was meant to be eaten, and other times not, since some of the techniques to make a pyramid stable, like drizzling warm caramel over the arrangement or pouring water over it so it would ice, made the display purely decorative. But then a fruit centerpiece was designed less to be tasted than to dazzle and to amuse.

The best fruits for creating table decorations have sturdy skins and can thrive without being refrigerated. Apples, oranges, and lemons, for example, may last several weeks; grapes stay pretty for four or five days. Combining fruit is as rich an art as arranging flowers, and just as rewarding, if you learn to appreciate fruit for its color, shape, texture, and size, as you do your favorite blooms. Be simple or be grand.

A single pear crowning a slender candlestick can be as eloquent as a lily in a bud vase—or a tower of plums, pears, and grapes can have the intricacy of a lavish bouquet.

You can make delectable arrangements with surprising ease. Construct a tall cone of fruit simply by piercing each piece of fruit with a toothpick, then piling the fruit in circles on a Styrofoam form. Create sparkling table ornaments with a coat of spray-on adhesive and a frosting of granulated sugar. A single piece of fruit can shine, dressed with a ribbon at each place setting.

For still richer arrangements, combine fruit with greenery. Sprigs of princess pine or boxwood can enliven a fruit pyramid. Red fruit will look even more vivid against bluish evergreens, like eucalyptus or white pine. Wired to a wreath or garland, apples and plums will resemble luscious Christmas-tree balls. And don’t forget artificial fruit: A swag garnished with polystyrene fruit is both lightweight and long-lasting.

Fruit is so vibrant it can provide a color theme for your table or the decoration of an entire dining room. To dress up a serene green-and-white dining room for the holidays, you can gather the reddest apples, pomegranates, litchi, and viburnum berries, and place them atop the mantel and table. Fruit can also spin a mood. A spiky pineapple and the bright, sunny hues of oranges, lemons, and limes may call to mind the tropics. But what fruit does best is help you welcome the holidays, and your guests, with one of nature’s sweetest, most prized gifts.