Building a custom home means that you can personalize the design you are looking for both on the interior and the exterior. Roof pitch, doors, siding materials, and paint colors all play a part in creating the architectural style you desire, but the windows you choose make a powerful impact as well. We use low-E vinyl windows on all of our homes for energy efficiency in the Florida climate. While many people are familiar with the white windows with traditional grids, there are so many more grid patterns and colors to choose from.
Vinyl windows come in 3 extruded colors of white, clay, and almond. The painted vinyl color palette expands to black, bronze, cocoa, cream, dark green, and even silver. The black windows, in particular, are very popular today and complement farmhouse, modern, and neotraditional designs. Dark green windows add a historic touch to a craftsman style home, where bronze and clay windows work well for Mediterranean exteriors. For color schemes with a tan trim, cream or almond windows blend in and create a uniform design.
The grid patterns (or muntins) also come in a variety of configurations to work with any architectural style. Colonial windows have vertical and horizontal muntins that create even squares, and are the pattern most people are familiar with. These windows work well on several different design styles from farmhouse to traditional. Prairie windows have a large open space in the center of the window with the muntins criss-crossing along the outer edge. This arts and crafts pattern works best on a craftsman style home. For a more modern look, clients often choose to have no muntins at all and just leave the clear glass on the front of the home. The final pattern we see is the cross pattern that has 1 vertical and 1 horizontal muntin in the center of the window. This style complements farmhouse as well as more transitional homes. Another popular option is to leave the bottom half of the window clear glass and do the muntins on the top half only. This works with any of the patterns and can really set the exterior of your home apart.
Whether you have a modern farmhouse or a traditional brick home, the right window style and color can bring the exterior together. Choosing a different window pattern can really make your home stand out from the crowd, and bring your home curb appeal in subtle ways that make it truly unique.
