Hardwoods and softwoods: what’s the difference, and which type is better for interior shutter manufacturing? Or is one type better than the other for interior shutter manufacturing? Here is a look at hardwoods vs. softwoods and which types of wood are most often used to make interior plantation shutters.

What’s the difference?

While you might think that the difference between a hardwood and a softwood has to do with the hardness of a particular variety of wood, the difference is actually something else entirely: hardwoods come from trees whose seeds fall to the ground in some sort of shell or fruit (think of deciduous trees whose leaves fall during autumn), and softwoods come from trees whose seeds fall to the ground without any sort of covering (think of coniferous trees that typically have needles and cones).

So it really has nothing to do with the innate qualities of a piece of wood. Balsa wood, for example, is one of the softest woods you can work with, yet it is technically classified as a hardwood. Yew, meanwhile, is tougher than many hardwoods—oak included—yet it is technically a softwood.

With that said, you’ll find both hardwoods and softwoods used in plantation shutter manufacturing. Here is a look at some of the most frequently used types.