Are you talking about shutters on the exterior or the interior? I have plantation shutters in my house, as do several of my middle-America neighbors. Exterior shutters in these parts are almost always decorative.
I like the look, ease of tilting the louvers up and down and, most importantly, they are dead simple to clean. But they were not cheap and not easy to install. I could have had high quality fabric shades for half the cost and spent one-third the time on installation.
Edit: Maybe its particular to what I installed (Veneta) but good luck fix a single louver if one breaks. The frame which contains them is either glued or very tightly press-fit. I'm not saying it would be impossible but you'd need to be careful and probably need to build some sort of jig for re-assembly.
Plantation shutters are very common on older houses in the South. They’re also pretty common on higher end newer houses. I love them and had them installed when we moved into our current house a couple years ago.
I am facing exactly this repair now. My method is to modify one side of the vane so that a pin can be press fit/glued into the vane from the side and covered with a glued plug. This can be done in-place when needed. It's not completely invisible but putty and a little brushwork make it almost so.
I like the look, ease of tilting the louvers up and down and, most importantly, they are dead simple to clean. But they were not cheap and not easy to install. I could have had high quality fabric shades for half the cost and spent one-third the time on installation.
Edit: Maybe its particular to what I installed (Veneta) but good luck fix a single louver if one breaks. The frame which contains them is either glued or very tightly press-fit. I'm not saying it would be impossible but you'd need to be careful and probably need to build some sort of jig for re-assembly.