Do Amish Homes Have Curtains & Shutters?

One misconception that I see often enough is the idea that Amish homes don’t have curtains covering their windows. There is an idea out there that curtains signify vanity and thus Amish don’t have them.

I can see the kernel of truth this may have emerged from (Amish tend to shy away from things that lead to vanity and pride), but curtains are certainly seen in Amish bedrooms, bathrooms, and other rooms of the home.

A related, and much more accurate, notion is that Amish homes don’t have shutters. That one is much more true – though there are some exceptions.

Curtains in Amish Homes

It is a fairly common misconception or myth that Amish homes don’t have curtains. This is not true.

Even the plainer Amish homes will have some kind of window covering. Amish people want privacy too, especially in bedrooms or more private rooms of the home – bathrooms – for example.

Now, not every single window in that house is necessarily going to have a curtain or a covering. For instance, you might see that some lower level rooms don’t have them.

You might also see these kind of half-curtains or semi-curtains – partial curtains – which seem a bit more decorative than functional. Maybe those cut down a bit of the sun.

But Amish bedrooms certainly have them in other rooms of the home as well. They’re not big, thick, fancy, elaborate, embroidered curtains. It’s more like a simple light piece of material – almost translucent. So some light does come through it.

Curtains in Amish homes can be different colors. They may be white. They may be a darker shade, purple, green, shades of blue. And then there might be just one on a window or there might be a pair of them.

In her book, New York Amish, Karen Johnson Weiner notes that the Ordnung (the unwritten rules and standards of each Amish church). She writes that Ordnung[s] “decree both the appropriate curtain color and how it should be hung.”

The other thing you’ll see besides curtains are these simple pull-down blinds. The type that are on a spool, and if you pull down hard enough on them, then they kind of fly back up. Not sure exactly what you call that type, but I think you know what I mean. Here’s an example in an Amish bathroom.

Below is the view from when I stay with some of my Amish friends in Pennsylvania. They have these types of blinds on their bedroom windows.

Shutters on Amish Homes?

Now, shutters. So Amish homes are commonly built without decorative shutters. It’s a simpler look.

It’s simpler without this somewhat unnecessary decorative element. Many Amish homes have a classic look to them. Usually, it is a white-colored exterior, two stories, very simple design, not a lot of decorative frills.

However, you very well can find shutters on some Amish homes. Here are two examples.

1. (Originally) non-Amish Homes

When Amish people buy homes that were built by non-Amish people, those homes will typically have shutters. And the Amish will tend to leave those on.

There may be cases where they remove them. But often when you buy a non-Amish home as an Amish person, you don’t do lots of major changes to the style of the home. It’s not going to look like a typical Amish home.

For example, if there’s a bay window in the home, you’re not going to tear that out (even though that’s not a typical “Amish” home feature). So, likewise they’ll leave the decorative shutters on the home.

2. Some Amish do build homes with shutters

Or another example, in some of the more progressive communities, you’ll see that Amish actually build their homes with shutters.

Some of these Amish homes can rather quite resemble non-Amish homes in some of the more progressive church districts.

Two common Amish home misconceptions

So these are two common misconceptions regarding Amish homes. There’s definitely some truth to the idea that Amish homes typically don’t have shutters.

But it’s not a hard-and-fast rule that they don’t have shutters. And, you will definitely see curtains, or some kind of interior or window covering for privacy, in Amish homes.