Installing plantation shutters yourself is not a renovation project — it's a weekend project. The shutters arrive factory-built: panels, 3-inch flat Z-frame, white hinges and recessed magnets already fitted. Your job is to mount a square frame into each opening and hang the panels on it. Here's the plan, in order, that keeps the weekend calm instead of chaotic.
Friday evening: plan, don't touch tools yet
When your order arrives, do the boring part first. Count the boxes against your order sheet and open one box per window — not all of them. Each RS size ships its panel (or panels) plus the Z-frame it mounts into. Lay a moving blanket or an old sheet on the floor, and stage each window's boxes in the room where they'll be installed. Label them with painter's tape: “master bedroom,” “kitchen,” and so on. Mixing up panels between rooms is the number-one avoidable headache.
Then read through this plan once, end to end. Know your whole weekend before Saturday morning. Check that you have the tools below, and clear the work zone at each window — move the furniture, take down the old blinds, and give yourself room to work.
- Drill/driver with bits — for driving the frame screws
- A real level (not the phone app) — the frame must sit plumb and square
- Steel tape measure — to verify each opening before the frame goes in
- Pencil and painter's tape — marking, labeling, and holding shims
- Step stool or short ladder — for the high windows
- A second pair of hands — the biggest panel boxes run 50 to 63 lbs
Saturday morning: verify every opening
Before a single screw goes in, re-check each opening with the steel tape: three width measurements (top, middle, bottom) and three heights (left, middle, right). Confirm each still falls inside its RS size's range, and confirm the depth — an inside mount needs at least 1-3/4 inches of clear frame depth for the 3-inch Z-frame. Ten minutes of verification here is worth more than any tool on the list.
If you haven't measured yet, start at the beginning: our measuring guide walks through the three-spot technique and the mistakes that sink most DIY orders.
Saturday afternoon: mount the frames
Work one window at a time, and do the easiest window first — a small, square, ground-floor bedroom window is the perfect warm-up. Set the 3-inch flat Z-frame into the opening, check it with the level on all four sides, and shim where needed so it sits plumb and square. Drive the screws snug, not gorilla-tight — overtightening can pull a square frame out of square. Step back and sight it before you move on.
This is the part of the day that takes real attention, so don't rush it. A frame that's level and square makes Sunday's panel-hanging trivial; a frame that isn't makes everything after it fussy. When every frame is mounted, stop for the day. Admire your straight lines.
Sunday: hang the panels and tune them
Panels hang on the factory-fitted white hinges — line them up, seat them, and close them to check the fit. The recessed magnets should catch cleanly and hold the panels shut with a quiet click. Then run the louvers through their full range: the hidden gear tilt is cordless, so there's no rod to attach and nothing to adjust. Test the 50/50 split control — top half and bottom half moving independently — and confirm the two-way close rails shut flat in both directions.
Small gaps or a panel that doesn't quite catch are almost always a frame that needs a quarter-turn of adjustment, not a defective shutter. Loosen, nudge, re-level, re-tighten. Email us if something genuinely won't line up — that's what we're here for.
Sunday night: the payoff
Stand in the street and look at your house. Then close every louver in the master bedroom and stand in the dark. That's what the weekend bought you — and it cost from $18.95/sq. ft. plus a single $200 flat delivery for the whole order, because local delivery within 100 miles of Ontario, California is flat per order, not per window. Most shutters delivered in as little as 48 hours.
Ready to plan yours? Delivery details · Build your order
Install questions, answered
No — Prime View is DIY self-install. Most homeowners do it themselves over a weekend, and if you'd rather not, any contractor or handyman can handle it. What you save by skipping the install crew is part of why the price starts at $18.95/sq. ft.