The bifold colour conundrum..

[RuleWithAWoodenFoot]

.. we're having an extension across the whole back of our house - single storey, pitched roof with velux windows, and a pitched ceiling inside.

Bifold doors are going across a large part of the back, but a 'family room' low/large window will be flush with the doors to one side.

Colour is the issue - the grey ones look nice, but we live in a 60s box house with white UPVC windows. I'm not snobby about UPVC or the 60s box-ness, I don't mind either. I don't want to change all the windows since they are relatively new (previous owner), and in good condition.

I'd prefer white doors - they are big (5m wide), so the frames won't take up a big chunk. My partner gets to decorate this room (I have the rest of the house), and he'll just paint it white. The kitchen will be light grey around the walls with a v dark navy island unit. Oak floor, white worktops. He wants to have the dark grey doors.

My OCD says that we need to change the window to match the grey. Upstairs windows are white UPVC. We should just toss a coin right? Does it matter?

You can get PVC fames sprayed to match the grey - much cheaper than replacing the windows and the paint is guaranteed for 10 years or so I believe.

I'm sure I read somewhere that you can do a whole house full of windows for £2k ish, but no idea if that's inside and out, or just outside.

I don't think I could cope with mismatching 😁

You can get white bifold door frames (in aluminium). Why not just make your life easier and pick one of them?

we have grey back doors with white upvc windows upstairs and it looks fine. Kitchen is also v light grey doors with white granite sort of marbled top. I think it looks fab. You mainly look at the doors from the inside rather than the outside! But even from the outside it looks fine

I need to talk to the builder about the aluminium thing. I've just spent an hour looking at photos of houses with matching and mismatching frames, and still can't sort it out.

@LittleOverWhelmed what a lovely light space that must be inside with all those big windows! Love it 😍

I would say that if the bi folds are on their own on the ground floor then it would ‘ok’ that the rest is white.
LittleOverWhelmed’s extension looks great actually because it’s all cohesive.

However if say the far left window in that pic was an existing (Or even new) white window then it wouldn’t look right and would look bitty and not thought out.

So I’d say it depends on what the nearest windows are to it. One way or another make it cohesive all the way across but not necessarily upwards

I had this exact dilemma. I went for white. Grey is very on trend at the moment but I decided white to match the rest of the house.

With a 5m wide bifold, you will have a frame every metre, which is a lot of frame. I have sliding doors, but in anthracite, whilst the rest of the windows are (cheap & nasty) white UPVC. I notice the anthracite frame a lot less than the white ones - the colour isn’t as stark against the greens and greys of the garden. I mainly look through the windows / doors to the outside, not looking back at the house, so seeing mismatched frames is never an issue. I’m really glad I didn’t go for white, especially with the thick bifold frames.