John Vassar Custom Shutters & Blinds

John was very informative and helpful! We were able to have our shutters installed in about a week because he uses his factory to make all his shutters. We are thrilled about our shutters! They look wonderful and at a competitive price!

All I have to say is WOW! I ordered shutters from John for a few reasons. First he is very informative on the quality of shutters, he is straight to the point and does not feed you a bunch of BS, the shutters are wood, they are locally made and his time frame was unbeatable. Everyone I had talked to prior to John needed 8 – 10 weeks to manufacture. John’s time frame was 2 – 4 weeks. I ordered them ¹²⁄₂₂ they were installed 1/​9, the quality is outstanding and they are gorgeous!!! He was on time and very quick, he and his team were in and out in 4 hours. I am so happy I went with John Vassar!!!

The story of the inside mount shutters…
We first used John Vassar for three large, long windows in our Rivermark townhome in Santa Clara eight years ago. At the time, a decorator friend was helping us fix our place and highly recommended we install inside mount shutters. For those like me who do not know what those are — rather than installing a large, bulky frame over your window which encases the shutters, the shutters are installed within the window frame making the frame of the shutter flush with your window. It gives your window treatment a MUCH cleaner and more sophisticated look. We were extremely pleased with the shutters and when it came time to move on and sell the place this was definitely one of the highlights we had to offer over your usual cheapy blinds.
Inside mount is really a lost art form, as most shutter installers would rather nail a heavy frame over your window and be on their way. Why you ask? Because its SOOOOO much easier for them and takes a 10^th of the time with none of the craftsmanship for the exact same price! They will try to dissuade you that inside mount shutters will make any windows that are not perfectly rectangular very obvious with light holes and while there is some truth to that, when done correctly you won’t even notice the difference. Plus inside mount won’t shrink the size of a room like huge bulky outside mount frames will.
So when we moved to the Preserve in Redwood Shores we looked up John Vassar again and learned that the company is now being run by Steven Ullrich. We also consulted a couple other places (such as Custom Creations in San Carlos) but we’re so delighted to find out that Steven continues to install inside mount shutters — and wouldn’t you know it no one else would even entertain the thought. Our shutters were installed over the weekend and we LOVE them! Another fantastic job that we will enjoy for years to come! Thanks so much!

I used John in our previous home in Santa Clara. The shutters were installed in 03, we moved out last year and never had a problem with the shutters. The shutters were gorgeous and VERY cost effective.
What drove me to write this review now is that we have moved to a new house that has «other» shutters. When we bought, I liked that the house had shutters because I love the look. However, they are yellowing, the tilt bar attachments snap off way too easily, and they do not look nearly as nice. Now I appreciate my great shutters at the last house.

I adding this business as I was looking for reviews before choosing John –and there were none. He basically sells one kind of shutter — solid basswood shutter the best that you can get — not even Hunter Douglas sells this good of a shutter. They are awesome and he sells them at a great price. It’s his father’s company, and they are manufactured in LA area — not China. John’s personality is a little abrupt, but his service and product is excellent — anyone who has seen his work has given good feedback to us. We’ve had them for 5 months now — without any issues. He gave us phone numbers of people he has serviced — they all had good things to say about his shutters and service and all agree that his personality is a little abrupt. I would definitely refer him to my family and if we were to buy another house then I would have him do our shutters there as well.