Housing window frame colours

[mr magnolia]

Hello team

 

back in the day (1964) my earliest memory of Inglandshire was of house windows painted with the old 'lead' green paint.

Back up here in Scottlandshire, a previous neighbour in the flat below me in Embra had a long wrangle in the 90's with the council before he was allowed to paint his windows the same shade of green - and he was allowed, eventually, as it was restoring one of the 'historic' colours.

 

However, pretty much all of the models that I see on railway layouts have white window frames and general architectural details.

 

I'm trying to model pretend east central Scotland in late 1958, with motive power from about 1963, so lets say I'm modelling Victorian buildings as they were in the early 1960's

 

So, should I have green window frames and woodwork?

[rovex]

I think your pretty much allowed to have whatever colour you like

 

My last house, a victorian terrace, I had the waindows painted in burgundy, with the putty picked out in light cream (which was the colour they had been in when I moved in ten years previously, a neighbour had them in royal blue again with the putty in cream. Old photos tend would tend to suggest that window frames were painted in darker colours. They may have originally have been wood grained to look like more expensive wood like many panelled doors were

 

Whether it is a relatively recent phenomena to paint them in white I don't know. Most upvc wondows are white or wood effect brown.

 

I tend to leave my windows white in the buildings I make mainly beacuse they are so fiddly to paint when scratchbuilding.

[Guest stuartp]

These pics would suggest that white (or cream) isn't wrong, but some were darker. The Tollcross one repays being opened at full size, although I suspect at least some of the 'white' ones are sun glinting off the paint..

 

http://www.flickr.co...in/photostream/

 

http://www.flickr.co...57600262623157/

[Guest Natalie Graham]

I grew up in a mining village in Yorkshire and the doors and windows of a large number of the houses were painted yellow and blue, the NCB colours, as the paint was pinched from the pit.

[Thos]

This link might be a bit "modern" or American" for what you are really after, but it gives a good idea of the colours (colors!) that were available in the 50s.......

 

http://retrorenovati...use-collection/

Wow, what an amazing site - how to restore a 1960s house to its original condition. And there's me, modernising my 1960s house.

[DaveF]

I've had a quick look through some old family photos dating back to the 50s and 60s.

 

One bungalow we lived in had white window frames and a yellow door, a Victorian house had everything painted a very dark green.

 

On other houses the most common window colour was white, often with either brown or green doors.

 

Other colours for window frames included various shades of brown, blue, grey, cream. The putty was often cream or white when frames were some other colour.

 

In the early 60s most areas still had coal fires so paintwork lost any pristine finish, especially white, very quickly and nothing stayed glossy for long. Also a lot of the woodwork of houses still showed the lack of maintenance both during and for a long time after the war when most things were "hard to get" including good paint in a range of colours.

 

David

[Coombe Barton]

Our new house in 1955 the window/paintwork colour was either green and cream or black and white - with the putty beng picked out in the lighter colour.

 

In 1963 the next new house was all white.

[t-b-g]

I can't remember where I saw it now but there has been a discussion about this, or a description in an article somewhere! I recall that the opinion was put forward that white paint was not of particularly good quality until fairly recently (probably 1960s) and that the paints available earlier than that went yellow quite quickly, requiring regular repainting. It also, in an age of soot, smoke and dirt, needed ore cleaning than a darker colour. So although white paint was available earlier, it was not very popular and the majority of houses were painted in darker colours, with greens and browns being the most popular colours as reds, blues and yellows suffered from similar problems. I may be wrong on this and I wish I could remember where I saw it but that is what sticks in my memory.

[Lady_Ava_Hay]

Green or brown was the favoured colourwith burgundy red a close third because they were generally available and fairly durable. All bare wood needed primer then undercoat and then gloss. If the instructions were not followed as to drying and overcoating times, the gloss peeled off or the whole lot bubbled and fell off. Gloss went chalky within three years.

 

All oil based paints and now illegal. Modern paints are better at adhering but lack that thickness of pigment. A change of colour required burning off using a paraffin blowlamp, only found in antique and junk shops now.

 

Window frame rot was unheard of unless the painting was neglected but jammed frames caused by excess paint and slow drying times was very common.

 

I can still remember my father doing the house paint about every ten years or so and one year he even used Snowcem on the pebble dashing. Still there as far as I know and it covered the war damage repairs.

 

A good strong SunRay house built in the early 30's. My brother lives in it now.

[BernardTPM]

Our house has deep red window frames, same as circa 1960 (with the stone/plasterwork in light cream) though they did have a few years (late '70s) when they went orange. Sanity has since been restored!

[Kenton]

Our terrace house in the late 50's had white windows and a sky blue front door.

I remember the door because I also remember "helping my dad repaint it pillar-box red and getting about as much paint on myself as the door.

Painting window frames seemed to be an annual job as the white on a south facing window close to a main road soon looked like off cream colour.

I cannot recall any green window frames even from student days when psychedelia purples and oranges and lime green was more the rage.

[trisonic]

It is a common misconception that in Victorian times all houses were drab colours. Those that could afford it painted their houses in a riot of colours (including wallpaper). More subdued colours came after WW1.

I'm sure that the Victoria and Albert Museum probably have a lot of info on house colours and interiors (not just the Victorian era).

 

Best, Pete.

[RANGERS]

Brought up on a council estate in the 60s-70s, the windows were all white and wo betide anyone brave enough to buck the trend, they'd be the talk of the Co-Op! The houses all had metal windows, UPVC didn't appear until after the Council House sale policy came in with the 'Thatcher Government in 1979, up until that point all the houses were the same and the appearance was pretty uniform. The windows themelves did corrode and needed regular painting, every two - three years seems about right IIRC.

 

Front doors were painted on the whim of the council painters, variously we had red, navy blue and dark green. I dare say you could choose your colour for a consideration of the price of a pint to the painter on the day!

[Pennine MC]

UPVC didn't appear until after the Council House sale policy came in with the 'Thatcher Government in 1979,

 

If Hull was anything to go by, I think a certain prevalence of Kentucky front doors on 'right to buy' properties would set that period nicely

[26power]

Some colour pictures of Edinburgh in the 1950s and 60s at this link, although an awful lot of Princes Street and other tourist attractions:

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/recoveringscot/collections/72157611555617024/

 

Hope this of some help.

 

Cheers,

 

26power

[MrSimon]

I remember going on a tour of Belfast a few years back and the guide said that when the shipbuilders were still open most of the terraced houses had ship-coloured woodwork. My Grandad's house in Darlington always had Corporation Red woodwork - he worked on the buses!

[DavidR]

As a child of the 50's I remember the house doors and windows in my road, in Birmingham, were nearly any colour, but white. I understand the non-use of white was the inhability of the manufacturers to produce a good, bright, lasting white. Green was favourite, followed by deep yellow, maroon and various hues of blue. Other properties not painted since the war were black.

Going back pre-war, many house windows/doors were painted black, brown or a dull green. I don't know whether this was because of cost, or the non-availabilty of other colours. Certainly, if you look at Victorian/ Edwardian prints of properties there are few illusrtations of windows and doors painted in anything but dark colours.

[Black Sheep]

I grew up in the 80's and most houses on my parent's street had white window frames (wood) and different coloured doors

except my next door neighbour who's window frames were blue, think this might have been only on the section that actually opened tho.

 

The houses were built in the early 70's, he'd owned it from new.

 

Gran's 1930's house had white windows, yellow door,

 

Grandma's 50's build had white and white door

 

seems people went in for white in the 80's