Design Inspiration · 3 min read
Should New Windows Match the Original Ones?
Match the proportions always. Match the details when the building or the planning position requires it. Match a poor previous replacement never.
Design Inspiration · Flagship guide
How Do I Choose Windows Without Ruining the Look of My House?
Almost every window that spoils a house fails on proportion or configuration, not on material or colour. Get the divisions of the opening right and most other decisions follow.
3 min read
Written by Windows in the Lakes · A trading name of Home Glazing Ltd · Last reviewed 21 September 2026
Short answer
In short: work from the elevation inwards. Decide how each opening should be divided, where the openers go, and how the whole elevation reads together — then choose the material, colour and hardware. Houses are ruined by windows that are the wrong shape far more often than by windows that are the wrong colour.
This guide sets out the order of decisions we use on survey, and the specific mistakes that are hardest to undo.
Proportion is the decision that matters most
Every opening has a proportion that was intended, and most older houses have a consistent logic across the elevation: taller than wide, divided vertically, with heads aligned. Modern replacements frequently break that logic by dividing an opening horizontally, by adding a transom that was never there, or by making every light identical regardless of opening size.
- Photograph the elevation straight on before deciding anything. Problems that are invisible from the pavement are obvious in a flat photograph.
- Keep vertical emphasis in vertical openings.
- Align heads across the elevation even where widths differ.
- Repeat divisions across similar openings rather than treating each window separately.
Configuration: where the openers go
Opening sashes are visually heavier than fixed lights, because they carry a second frame within the frame. Putting an opener in every light is the fastest way to make an elevation look busy and to lose glass area. Decide what each room actually needs — ventilation, cleaning access, escape where required — and fix the rest.
Frame thickness, colour and glazing bars
| Decision | Safe approach | What goes wrong |
|---|---|---|
| Frame thickness | Match the visual weight of what was there, or go slimmer deliberately | A chunky frame in a small opening kills the glass area |
| Colour | Recessive tones against stone; consider the roof and rainwater goods | Bright white on a stone elevation, or a fashionable colour with no relationship to the house |
| Glazing bars | Only where the building had them, matching the original pattern | Generic grids applied to every window |
| Cills | Respect the existing detail and projection | A new cill projection that changes the shadow line of the whole elevation |
| Handles | One family throughout | Different hardware on each elevation |
A simple test before you order
- 01Print the elevationA straight-on photograph, marked up with the proposed divisions and opening sashes.
- 02Stand backLook at it from the distance people actually see the house — usually across the road, not from a metre away.
- 03Cover one windowIf covering a single window makes the elevation better, that window's configuration is wrong.
- 04Check the whole houseElevations are rarely seen in isolation; look at the corner where two elevations meet.
From a real Windows in the Lakes project
Near Penrith, Eden Valley · Whole-house remodel · 24 heritage windows, bifold and internal screens
A House Rebuilt Around Its Glazing
Twenty-four windows across two very different elevations — a formal, traditionally detailed frontage and a rear range intended to be almost entirely glass — risked reading as two unrelated buildings.
One system family and one finish across the whole house. Heritage casements with astragal bars answer the front elevation's proportions; the same profile, without bars, runs the glazed rear band and bifold. Internal steel-look screens repeat the sightline indoors, and matt black ties every opening together.
Read the project storyNext step
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