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If you’re considering giving your Long Island home a make-over, you’ve probably spent hours flipping through home décor magazines, browsing online DIY journals and talking to your friends and neighbors who have navigated that journey before you. Maybe you’ve watched a few of those design-on-a-budget television shows where the host is giving viewers tips on recreating fabulous, luxuriously furnished rooms for a fraction of the cost spent on the original.
First, we’d like to tell you that you are on the right track. Experience has taught our Renewal by Andersen team that the more you research home improvement products before you start the project, the more likely it is you’ll be happy with the end result.
In this week’s post, we’d like to offer a few tips for homeowners considering replacing their existing windows as part of an overall home makeover. Here’s your roadmap to design success.
1. Choose the highest quality you can afford, without over-extending yourself financially. Custom-built windows constructed with high-quality materials and modern manufacturing processes allow you to create truly stunning visual appeal. Plus, “cheap” frames built with subpar materials tend to warp and sag within a few years, costing you more in the long run because you’ll lose efficiency and have to replace them to control energy-efficiency and comfort in your home.
2. Choosing your preferred style and colors. Upgrading windows and patio doors is an investment for your home and comfort. It’s essential that window and door options reflect your home’s personality and architectural style so they “fit in” with your overall décor scheme. Similar to the process you’ll follow to select new upholstery for recovering sofas and chairs, consider how well each window complements your lifestyle and each room’s function. Sofas in a game room require very different fabrics and textures than those furnishing a formal sitting area, and the best-fit windows for your basement probably aren’t the same style as you’d choose for your bedroom or kitchen.
3. Custom configurations dramatically impact curb appeal. If you’re looking to add a splash of color, or highlight a specific architectural element in your home, explore custom configurations that add visual texture. Bow and bay windows can be configured with operable and inoperable windows, allowing you to slightly expand your interior floor space or extend windows on lower floors to create a small nook or sunroom for your indoor plants. You can also mull (join) specialty windows — half-circles, triangles, trapezoids — above, beside or beneath square or rectangular windows to create unique window walls that improve ventilation and let natural light flow while making a bold, eye-catching statement.
4. Incorporate visual interest with colors, textures and frame width. You may want to present a conservative exterior personality, but inside your decorating style is more contemporary or sassy. Choosing paintable and stainable interiors and grilles give you more options to create diverse environments. And, even slight differences in trim and frame width and hardware options give you the freedom to design stunning views—both when looking through them or looking at them. To get a better idea of how much difference it makes to choose a slightly smaller frame width, visit our window and door visualizer tool. Upload photos of your home for a realistic view of how each design component will complement or detract from your overall decorating goals, or browse our photo library of samples.
5. Don’t compromise on convenience, decorating goals or performance expectations. This is perhaps the most important tip of the day. Creating a clear set of expectations is essential to being satisfied once your new replacement windows are installed. When you schedule a home-inspection visit with a professional replacement window consult, it helps to have a list of goals in hand. If installing the most energy-efficient windows available is your primary, must-have goal, let your window consultant know. Likewise, if you won’t be satisfied with any window you cannot easily update the interior trim on, that is a key design feature that needs to be communicated to your representative.
Our goal isn’t to talk you into buying the most popular window styles in our portfolio or pushing you toward the most popular color combinations. If you want to showcase your home in style, we want to help you achieve your goals with custom-crafted, high-performance replacement windows and patio doors. That’s it. Your goals are our goals. Ready to get started? Give us a call at (866) 609-5033 and let us know the most convenient time to sit down with you to talk replacement window design. No time to call? No problem, just fill in the short form on this page to request more information.
Learn Everything You Need to Know BEFORE Buying Replacement Windows