Black Windows

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend! Ours was filled with demo and exposing more interesting (read: gross) aspects of the house. Including a lot of dead bugs hidden under 30-something year-old carpeting. Don’t act like you’re not jealous.

One of the first things we needed to figure out for the renovation was what windows and doors we were going to use. Every single window and door in the house needs to be replaced. I knew the minute we walked through the house I wanted black, thin framed windows.

Images found on Pinterest

Our architect got a bid for us and we thought we were good to go but then we figured out there was a problem. Our bid was for white windows, not black. Seemed easy enough to fix, right? Just switch them to black. But here’s the thing– black windows are extremely difficult to find and even more difficult to find at a reasonable price.

I give you the black window dilemma:

1) The most economical option for windows is vinyl. It’s also the most often used. Very few vinyl windows come in black and those that do, only come in black on the outside, not the inside.

2) You can’t paint vinyl windows and make them look good. They just don’t wear well and the paint wouldn’t hold up to the elements well.

3) The other options are aluminum, wood, and fiberglass. I’ll break down each one.

4) Aluminum is expensive. Also, it doesn’t meet all energy efficiency requirements for our area.

5) Wood is very expensive and we couldn’t find a thin frame option we liked. They all looked a bit too traditional which didn’t really flow with the mid-century look we were going for.

6) That left us with fiberglass. Fiberglass is more expensive than vinyl, but not as high as the other two options. The most economical/best fit for the style we wanted (aka thinnest frame possible) was also black on the outside and white on the inside, but you can paint fiberglass– hoorah!

In summary, we went with thin frame fiberglass, black on outside, white on inside, and plan to paint them on the inside to get the look we want. Who knew it would be so complicated? It feels so good to have this decision made and checked off our list. Windows and doors are a big investment and mistakes can be costly.

We looked at a bunch of different brands but ended up going with Anderson windows on special at Home Depot for Black Friday.

One tip: if you’re planning a remodel or new build, order windows and doors as soon as possible. They take a while to make and get in, as they are often custom sizes, and you don’t want that to hold you up.

We’re still narrowing down the front door option. I have something specific in mind and we just want to make sure we get it right. That is the next thing we need to order, as it could also take a while to get in.

Lots more on the new/old house coming this week! Stay tuned….

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