Which shade of aluminium? (pic attached)

[Stumbleine]

Initially for a slider door and back windows, but will eventually match whole house.

I am keen not to go down the standard anthracite grey route (too dark). Though I am favouring a grey. Does anyone know of a decent visualiser online? The RAL colours seem endless!

I don't think online visualisers work very well as you don't get a true representation plus the orientation of the house will have an effect on the end colour due to light variations. Your manufacturer will probably offer four or so standard colours and is likely to charge extra for an alternative RAL colour - that may influence your decision. They should also be able to give you samples of their standard range which although small should help a bit RAL 9007 is the standard pale grey but it's a little metallic looking. Option 2 is you order RAL colour book so you can see what the colours look like in your house.

We went for slate grey which is a standard colour which is a bit lighter than anthracite.

We have 7023, which is called 'Concrete grey'. The tone is probably what you are looking for, but it has a definite green hue.

I second the advice to get hold of samples. Carry them around everywhere, check in different orientations and lights, and against the background materials.

Thanks all. Will try and get hold of some samples and see. It's just so tricky to visualise!

OP, what did you go for in the end as I'm in the same dilemma? Is your project a full exterior makeover? Our house is similar to yours and looking for inspiration.

What’s your budget for a visualiser? I run a small 3d architectural visualising business. It’s one of the few specialist services we offer clients. I can provide a photo montage visualisation. It will give you a good idea but due to the slenderness of the frame, slight difference in the grey tone would look almost the same. I normally specify a dark shade of grey if it’s aluminium frame, never lighter than mid toned grey. A dark graphite/gum metal grey goes well with brick and it’s quite a safe ‘neutral’ choice.

Why not lighter than mid tone grey, Archipops?

We chose a textured finish called platinum. I'm really pleased with it.

It’s for 2 silly reasons actually. 1. Anything lighter like medium or light grey is a bit noughties, so kinda out of fashion. but dark grey or black frames are in, a lot of design conscious architects are specifying it for housing right now especially if it’s a brick house. 2. But having said that I hv personally always liked dark grey or black window/door frames, gutters, fascia, rainwater pipes and hoppers anyway. I reckon it looks better it also makes windows look quite seamless which makes it look nice and clean as the joints and junctions just blend in, and coincidently black/dark grey is also ‘in’ right now (but being ‘in’ is not quite a good reason).

I am going for a colour that is pretty much Farrow and Ball's downpipe. I like it because it is a greeny-grey, not a bluey-grey. A lot of the windows on sale are very blue-grey, some are nearly navy.

It’s nice. a kinda warm grey instead of a cool (bluish) grey. personally I think the colour is alright, prob not worth paying someone for a visualisation. Maybe your photo can be photoshopped by a friend to give u an ‘artist impression’ of it with frames in that colour.

I think black would look great with the red bricks. Which window company are you using OP? It's a project for us too.

Oh sorry Stubleine, my last post was refering to Whiskyowl’s comment. I thought that was you.

It was nice to get professional validation for my colour choice though @Archipops!