Dark grey windows and stone work on Edwardian and Victorian terraced houses

[cinnabunbun]

Is this trend for really dark grey window frames and stone work/lintels etc in edwardian and Victorian terraces a return to some previous tradition? Or is it a trend that will date badly and be difficult to reverse?

I currently have (rotten) white wooden sash windows that aren't original and I'm thinking of going darker when I renovate. The stone work surround on the bays has a million layers of white paint on it and I'm thinking of having this properly stripped back and restored then painted.

There are 4 or 5 of the fanciest looking houses on the terrace street that have the dark windows and they look super smart but a little severe. I'm in two minds about whether to join them or stay white with the majority of the houses in the street.

Which would show the faults and repairs in our stonework the least?

I really like the dark grey bays and they seem to be added to every renovation in my part of town lately. Is this happening in other areas too?

The trend in my town is to paint lovely old houses white and add those grey frames. I hate it. It’s making all the beautiful old houses look like new builds. If your house is 1950s onwards I’d say go for it, but if it’s an older house don’t do it - it robs them of all their character.

When had our awful white windows replaced this summer with grey ones, and had the sills painted black. Personally I think it looks very classy.

It depends on the brick colour. I see it a lot locally and the red tones in the brick seem to really clash with the slightly blue tone of the grey.
It does have a bit of 'renovated in the 2010s' about it too.

Personally I don't like it on older houses. I think it'll really date too.

Grey window frames look really dull to me, and already dated.

I’ve always hated painted stonework. I don’t know why. Re window frames it will date eventually but if you have wooden frames you’ll need to repaint them soon enough anyway.

Absolutely loathe it, and yes I believe it will date badly and be difficult to cover up with a more traditional light colour when you get sick of it.

I agree dark frames and doors look better on new builds and I'm not a fan generally of the look.

We did ours recently and went with a light wood effect which I think looks good and is in keeping with what was there originally when the house was built. I'm very much hoping it doesn't date but can never be sure!

Sorry, mine isn't relevant because I've just re read your OP and realise you are talking about keeping the wooden frames and repainting. Mine are upvc! (we wanted timber but they were twice the price and neither me or the OH wanted to commit to repainting every few years)

Because it's so fashionable to do it right now it is vulnerable to dating quickly - basically because it's so 'of the moment' that it'll become easy to tell when windows were done based on the colour.

However, that's no different to houses in the 1980s that all suddenly got the same type of uPVC windows.

The risk with doing anything trendy to a house is that it'll soon not be trendy.

Just out of curiosity where are you OP?
I love this look but I don't think it's a return to any tradition (and have just consulted my Victorian and Edwardian Houses book to check). I'm toying with the idea too but we'd be the only house in our street to have dark windows so I'm holding fire. I also wonder how the darker paint would hold up in the sun - ?
I can't get too worked up about moving on when it looks dated, I think an extra coat of primer/undercoat should sort it - ? There was that trend for a kind of country greeny-grey which featured on every house dh and I viewed in 2007, and that is just beginning to die a death.
We installed bi-fold garden doors in a dark bronzey-grey a few years ago and I'm really itching to do the windows to match. Mind, if the masonry was unpainted I wouldn't change it, but like you ours is already white.

I think it looks a little dated already - lots of people in the naice bit of SW London where I live have been doing this for years and I noticed when going to my parent's little town recently that lots of people there have started doing it as well. I don't mind it with white houses, but IMO it makes brick houses look a bit gloomy and brings to mind boarded up houses

@quickkimchi I'm in east London. It's mainly red brick houses and red Warner flats in my area.

It's interesting to see how strongly people feel about it! I think my final decision will come down to cost of the window replacements and whether the decorative stone work surround is repairable or if we'd be better off rendering the window surround to be smooth.

If we get UPVC sash style windows then I think I might go dark as these seem to look more convincing that the white pvc sashes