Want New Shutters or Shades Before the Holidays? How the Timeline Actually Works

Every custom shutter and shade is built to order, so the calendar runs in five stages: the in-home visit and measure, product and fabric selection, the final order approval, manufacturing, and installation. The stages we control are fairly predictable; the stage most homeowners underestimate is the one they control, which is how long it takes them to decide.

The five stages between "we want shutters" and "they're on the wall"

We hear the same call every fall from Calabasas, Sherman Oaks, Northridge and Agoura Hills. Family is coming, the guest room still has the vinyl blinds the previous owner left, and the two-story great room glare is embarrassing at four o'clock. The question is always some version of "can this be done in time?"

The honest answer starts with understanding what actually has to happen.

• The in-home visit. Someone comes to the house, measures every window, brings real samples, and you get a firm quote. Not a per-window estimate over the phone — an actual number for the actual openings. There's a $150 in-home measure fee, and it's credited toward your order.
• Selection. Product family first (shutter, roller, cellular, roman, drapery), then the specifics: louver size, frame style, fabric, openness factor, color, control type, motorization or not.
• Final order approval. You sign off on a written spec — every opening, every dimension, every finish, mount type, and control side. This is the point of no return, because the factory cuts to those numbers.
• Manufacturing. Your order goes to the factory and gets built. Nothing sits on a shelf waiting for you.
• Installation. Install is included in the quoted price, and the install carries a 12-month warranty. Manufacturer warranties vary by product.

Stages one, three and five are scheduling. Stage four is a lead time we quote you. Stage two is entirely yours, and it's the one that swallows fall calendars.

What actually controls the clock is how fast you decide

We've watched two nearly identical projects — same number of openings, same product, same week of first contact — land a month apart. The difference was never the factory. It was one household that picked a white shutter with a 3 1/2 inch louver at the kitchen table, and one household that took home four fabric samples, ordered a fifth, and then had to get a spouse home from a work trip to look at them.

That's not a criticism. These are permanent-feeling purchases and people should live with a sample in the actual room, at the actual time of day, before committing. A solar shade fabric that looks perfect at 10am in Encino reads completely different at 5pm with the sun coming straight down the barrel of a west-facing slider. Taking two days to check that is smart.

What costs time is indecision without a deadline. So set one. Here's what tends to slow people down, in rough order:

• Color matching across rooms. Whether the shutters in the hallway need to match the shutters in the master. (They usually should. Decide once.)
• Openness factor on solar shades. The tradeoff between view-through and glare control on a big west wall. Worth a sample. Not worth three weeks.
• Motorization. Adding motors after you've priced manual changes hardware, sometimes fabric roll direction, and occasionally requires a power conversation. Decide this early, not late.
• Adding rooms mid-process. The most common one. You order the front of the house, then decide the back bedrooms should match. Re-measuring and re-approving resets part of the clock.

If you want everything in place before company arrives, the single most useful thing you can do is walk the whole house before the measure appointment and decide which openings are in scope.

Why there's no single lead time — and why we won't quote one here

Lead time is not a fixed property of our company. It's a property of the product, the specs, and the season, and all three move.

Product type matters. A painted composite shutter, a stained hardwood shutter, a basic roller shade, a specialty woven wood, and a fabricated drapery panel are made in different facilities with different processes. They do not come off the same line at the same pace.

Specs inside a product matter. Standard white in a common size is not the same as a custom stain match, an arch or angle top, a specialty shape for a two-story window, or an oversized panel for a great-room view wall in The Oaks or Bell Canyon. Non-standard work takes longer, every time, at every manufacturer.

Season matters. Fall is the busy period across the whole industry, for exactly the reason you're reading this. Factory queues lengthen. So do installer calendars.

That's why we give you the current lead time at the consultation, for your specific product, in writing on the quote. Anyone who quotes you a firm turnaround before knowing what you're ordering is either guessing or telling you what you want to hear. And we don't promise a holiday delivery date, because the date depends on when you approve, not when you call.

Order of operations for a house that's hosting

If time is short, don't start with the easy rooms. Start with the ones that are both hardest to make and most visible when twelve people are in the house.

Do the great room and the view wall first. In the Porter Ranch hillside tracts, Hidden Hills, and the newer Calabasas and Agoura Hills gated communities, the two-story living room is where everyone ends up. It's also where the openings are oversized, sometimes shaped, sometimes high enough to need motorization — all the things that add production time. This room sets your schedule. Decide it first.

Then the guest bedroom. The complaint we get after the holidays is always about blackout. Out-of-town family sleeping in a room with the Valley sun hitting the east glass at 6:30am, or streetlight bleeding around a shade with no side channels. Blackout is a specification, not just a fabric choice — the mount, the side gaps and the header all have to be handled deliberately.

Then the wide, low windows. The 1950s–70s ranch stock through Woodland Hills, Tarzana, Granada Hills, Chatsworth, Studio City and Toluca Lake has a lot of long horizontal openings, sometimes with aluminum frames and shallow depth. Those get measured carefully for mount type and often split into multiple panels. Not slow, but not something to leave for a last-minute addendum.

Leave the back hallway, laundry and secondary baths for last. Small, standard, low-drama. If one opening is going to land after the turkey, make it the one nobody sees.

One more thing on afternoon heat: if part of the reason you're buying is the west-facing glare that runs from 3pm to sunset in the inland valleys, read what actually keeps a west-facing room cooler before you settle on a product. It may change what you order, and it's cheaper to change your mind before the spec is approved.

Start now, and ask the one question that matters

The practical takeaway is unglamorous. Book the measure earlier than feels necessary, decide the hardest rooms first, and ask directly for the current lead time on the specific product you're ordering — then work backward from the date your family lands.

When you're ready, book the in-home visit. Someone comes to the house, measures every window, brings real samples you can hold up to your own glass, and you leave with a firm quote that includes installation and the current lead time in writing. We schedule Monday through Friday, 8am to 6pm. If you already have a quote from another company and want a second read before you approve anything, upload it to our free Quote Check tool — and if you'd rather not have anyone out yet, you can send sizes and photos for a remote quote through our contact page.

The one thing we can't do is compress the factory. Everything upstream of it, you can.

Frequently asked questions

How long do custom shutters take to make?

There's no single answer, because lead time depends on the product, the specifications and the season. A standard painted composite shutter, a custom stain match, an arched or angled window, and an oversized great-room panel all move through the factory at different speeds, and fall is the busiest stretch of the year across the whole industry. We give you the current lead time for your specific order, in writing, on the quote at the consultation.

What's the single biggest cause of delay?

Selection. The stages we control — measuring, ordering, manufacturing, installing — are reasonably predictable. The stage homeowners control is deciding on product, fabric, color and control type, and that's where most projects lose time. Adding rooms after the initial order is approved is the second most common one, because it means re-measuring and re-approving.

Which rooms should I order first if I'm short on time?

Start with the two-story great room or view wall, because those openings are often oversized, shaped, or motorized, and non-standard work takes the longest to build. Then the guest bedroom, where blackout needs to be specified deliberately rather than chosen off a swatch. Leave small standard openings like hallways and secondary baths for last.

What happens at the first appointment, and does it cost anything?

Someone comes to your home, measures every window, brings real samples, and you get a firm quote that includes installation and the current lead time. There's a $150 in-home measure fee, and it's credited toward your order. You can also send sizes and photos for a remote quote if you'd rather start that way.

Can you guarantee the shades will be installed before Thanksgiving or Christmas?

No, and you should be skeptical of anyone who does before knowing what you're ordering. The finish date depends on the product you choose, the specifications, the factory queue at that moment, and how quickly you approve the final order. What we can do is tell you the current lead time at the consultation so you can work backward from your own date.