How Much Do Plantation Shutters Cost in Melbourne? A Real Guide to 2026 Pricing

Search for what plantation shutters cost in Melbourne and you’ll be told somewhere between $200 and $600 per square metre. That number isn’t wrong so much as it’s answering a different question. It’s scraped off DIY and flat-pack suppliers, and it covers a panel arriving in a box. No freight, no measure, no installation, and none of the risk of measuring your own windows, which is where most of those jobs actually go wrong.

So here are our real numbers. Starting rates per square metre by material, then what typical Melbourne windows land at, then the three things that push a job to the top of its range.

Prices last checked: October 2026.

Plantation Shutter Prices per Square Metre

Material	From (per m²)	Warranty
PVC with aluminium core	$275	10 years
Basswood timber, white shades	$348	Confirmed at quote
Aluminium	$450	20 years indoors, 10 years outdoors

These are starting rates. A standard rectangular window in a standard finish sits at the bottom. Custom shapes, mount position and colour move it up from there, and a quote should show you exactly how much each one adds.

PVC is the default for wet rooms. The aluminium core stops the long panels bowing, and the material doesn’t care about steam, which is why PVC shutters are the usual choice for bathrooms, laundries and kitchens.

Basswood is the timber most people picture when they think of shutters. Fine grain, takes paint and stain evenly, and it’s lighter than most hardwoods, so wide panels don’t sag on their hinges. Keep it out of the bathroom. Our basswood timber shutters are for bedrooms, living rooms and studies.

Aluminium costs the most because it’s built for weather. Patios, pergolas, alfresco areas, balconies. It’s also the strongest option inside if security matters on a ground-floor window. See aluminium shutters for where it earns the extra.

What Plantation Shutters Cost, by Window Type

Square metre rates are useful for comparing materials. They’re less useful for budgeting a house, because nobody buys a square metre. These are the ranges real Melbourne windows land in.

Window type	Typical range
Small toilet window	$300 to $500
Two-glass bathroom window	$500 to $800
Standard bedroom window, 2.7m ceiling	about $1,200 to $1,500
Large living room window	about $1,000 to $1,500
Standard two-glass sliding door, bi-fold or sliding shutters	from $1,800
Modern full house, eight to ten windows	about $5,000 to $8,000

Two notes on reading that table.

The bedroom window costs more than the large living room window, which looks wrong until you see why. It’s the 2.7 metre ceiling. Height drives panel count and hardware, and a tall narrow window can carry more of both than a wide one at standard height.

The sliding door row is a starting figure rather than a range, because door openings don’t have a ceiling. A standard two-glass slider starts at $1,800. A four-panel stacker across a whole wall is a different conversation, and it gets priced at the measure.

The Three Things That Move the Price

Custom shapes. An arched head, a raked stairwell window, a curved bay. A shaped panel is engineered rather than cut to size, and that’s where the top of a range comes from.

Mount position. Whether the shutter sits inside the window recess or fixes to the wall over it. A face-fixed frame uses more material than a recess frame, so it costs a little more per window, and across a whole house that adds up. It isn’t always a choice either: plenty of Melbourne housing has reveals too shallow to take a recess frame at all. Which way your windows are mounted is worth understanding before you compare two quotes.

Colour. Standard white sits at the bottom of the range. Stains and specified colours sit above it.

Nothing else moves the number as much as those three. Window count matters less than people assume. Window type matters far more.

How to Compare a Square Metre Price

A square metre rate is a fair way to compare one material against another. It’s a poor way to compare one supplier against another, unless you know what’s inside the number.

Ask three things of any per square metre figure. Does it include the measure? Does it include installation and freight? Does it assume a plain rectangle? A flat-pack rate usually answers no to all three, which is how it gets to look cheaper than an installed job.

The measure is the one people underrate. A shutter is made to a fixed size and doesn’t stretch. Measure a few millimetres over and it won’t go in. Measure a few under and you get a light gap down one side you’ll look at every day. Nothing at the end fixes a number recorded wrongly at the start, which is why plantation shutters installation and measuring are one job here, not an optional extra.

Cheap Online Kits vs a Full-Service Quote

Online kits come in off-the-shelf sizes that may not match your window. You measure, so a mistake is your cost. You install, so a mistake is your cost again. Freight goes on top, there’s no installation warranty, and the material is usually a thinner PVC or a softer timber.

If the budget is genuinely tight, a kit works. For most homes, though, the gap closes fast once you add freight, a remake or two, and a shorter life on the cheaper material.

What Should Be in the Quote

A written quote should break out materials and installation and show you both. If it doesn’t, you’re comparing a number against a number that means something different. Consumer Affairs Victoria makes the same point about any home improvement work: get it in writing, with the scope set out, before anything is ordered.

• Measure and installation included, with no separate fitting charge appearing later
• Material specified per room, not across the house
• Frame type and mount position stated per window
• Blade size stated
• Removal and disposal of existing blinds or curtains
• The warranty, and what it covers

Where Shutters Are and Aren’t Worth the Money

Shutters cost more per window than blinds. On the windows people see and sit next to, that’s money well spent: a shutter is a fixture that stays with the house and still looks right in fifteen years, while a blind usually gets replaced by the next owner. On a laundry window or a skylight the gap buys you very little, and how they compare with blinds is worth reading before you commit the whole budget one way.

The common mistake is spreading a budget thin across every window in the house. If it stretches to six windows in shutters or the whole house in blinds, the better move is usually to stage it. Front rooms and main living windows now, the back of the house later.

Getting a Real Number for Your House

None of the figures above are your price. They’re the bands Melbourne jobs land in, which is useful for working out whether you’re in the right conversation and useless for signing anything.

A free in-home measure gives you the actual number, window by window, with the frame and material decided at each opening rather than applied across the house. It takes about an hour, and it’s the only point at which a quote means anything.

Plantation Shutter Cost FAQs