When designing a new home or remodeling an existing one, thinking about how the house looks and feels outside is just as important as the inside details. Selecting the right windows for specific styles, designs, climates, and locations can mean vastly increasing a home’s curb appeal. Whether a home is going right on the market or being designed for a specific client, there are multiple factors architects, builders and remodelers should consider when optimizing for curb appeal.
How to Increase Overall Curb Appeal
Windows contribute to both the interior and exterior aesthetic, but when remodeling a home to add more curb appeal, changing various aspects of the windows can make it look like a new house. Changing the color scheme or adding more trim colors can also help freshen up the exterior. Changing window styles, sizes, shapes, or quantity makes an enormous difference when it comes to curb appeal. Whether replacing multiple small windows with a single large window or adding several large windows to open an entire wall, these modern updates create strong focal points to the overall outside of a home.
Photo credit: Kolbe Windows & Doors
Often, it’s not the number of windows that makes the difference, but rather the way they are utilized within the home’s design that contributes to overall curb appeal. Windows add interest, dimension, custom details and color, accentuating the architecture and attracting attention from the street. Large walls of glass or single, oversized windows give an impression of grandeur, creating highly impactful focal points, while admitting more daylight and views inside the home. Homes with fewer, smaller windows gives the impression of a quiet, private interior environment unaffected by the sounds and activities of the neighborhood. Smaller windows offer more options for ventilation and air circulation, while larger window configurations allow for more expansive views.
Selecting Windows for Home Styles and Locations
Double hung, single hung, and triple hung windows look most appropriate with traditional or historical designs, and often feature divided lites on the top sash. Casements, awnings and direct sets look best with modern designs, as they can be combined to cover entire walls with glass for larger viewing areas with ample ventilation. Queen Anne/Victorian homes typically feature bay or bow windows, while Mediterranean style homes often feature round and arched windows with tall casements for maximizing air flow. Ranch style homes incorporate large stationary casements, sliding windows, and picture windows. Similarly, the Prairie style accentuates the horizontal design with the use of clerestory windows and elongated “bands” of windows with divided lites.
Colder climates will sometimes see the use of triple-pane insulated glass for improved energy efficiency and less condensation on the inside glass pane. Warmer climates like Arizona focus on blocking out the Solar Heat Gain (SHG) for improved shading of the sunlight through the glass, so architects and builders tend to look for windows with a lower Solar Heat Gain Coefficient (SHGC). Homes built in elevations 4,000 feet and above need capillary or breather tubes to relieve air pressure build-up between the sealed glass panes.
Photo credit: Kolbe Windows & Doors
Window Style Variations
Choosing the right type of window and the right material is crucial to achieving the desired aesthetic. Whether vinyl, fiberglass, aluminum-clad wood, all wood, or all aluminum, first determine what window style best complements the design of the home. Wood adds historical character, authenticity, warmth, a natural and an organic feel, while aluminum offers a more traditional to contemporary appearance, as well as being low maintenance and durable. Contemporary designs often incorporate windows with narrow frames and flush exteriors for a clean, crisp look and larger expanses of glass. Geometric windows serve as architectural design elements that can fit in odd-shaped areas to follow the angle of the roofline, while round and oval windows can open up closets, bathrooms or stairways with additional light and views.
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Divided lites are typically desired to add character, architectural interest, and curb appeal. Available in numerous patterns and profiles, a single pane of glass with performance divided lites visually divides the window to create the same appearance as multiple panes of glass with true divided lites, but with greater energy efficiency. Clients also like that the divided lites provide more opportunities for color and contrast. Often used in historical and traditional homes, divided lites are also popular in modern farmhouse designs, as they have the ability to mimic the look of steel when finished in a dark color.
Interior and exterior window treatments add to the home’s color scheme, dimension, architectural interest, and ornamentation. Fabric blinds, shades, and drapes should provide a clean, uniform, consistent appearance that does not distract from the windows when seen from the street. On the outside, windowsill gardens offer dimension and contrast with splashes of color. Often just for looks, window shutters add texture and color to the home, and can coordinate or contrast with the trim, but many functional shutters are available to offer security and insulation. A two-toned sash and frame offer a unique appearance, while divided lites further multiply the possibilities for color and design. In contemporary homes, wood slats are very popular and provide partial privacy and shade while simultaneously obscuring and exposing the windows and the interior spaces behind them.
Photo credit: Kolbe Windows & Doors
When recommending windows to increase curb appeal to your clients, always remember there are three main elements to consider: frame material, glazing options and the style itself. These all contribute to enhancing the beauty of a home, but also play a significant role in a window’s overall energy performance.
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Kolbe Windows & Doors｜Member of the Window and Door Manufacturers Association (WDMA)
Webinar: Understanding Window, Door & Skylight Certification
Understand the benefits of window, door and skylight certification and how certified products can enhance your projects.
Webinar: Understanding Window, Door & Skylight Certification
The Understanding Window, Door & Skylight Certification webinar is designed to help architects and remodelers understand the benefits of window, door and skylight certification and how certified products can enhance their projects.
