White is a more traditional colour for window surrounds and won't date. Render has a tendency to come away in pieces if not applied efficiently. Couldn't you just paint the bricks directly?

Thanks, never considered to paint, that's a good point, but looking at it seems like most people advising white windows. Just would like to update the house and make it look attractive, and struggling for inspiration.

Hello Narvin,

I think a dark colour on the windows would be rather nice with the red brick.. If the windows are wooden then you can buy a range of paint colours.. I am thinking ideally a darker brown colour and wood or upvc can be done the same.. There are paints for upvc available should this be a requirement..

Possibly consider then growing something like a climber or a large potted plant or two as well. One other thought as I missed the first image, but I really like the buxus balls a lot, and so can you try to continue this theme round the house? They would look gr8 on the front and round the sides too.... : ))

Thanks for those who have come up with ideas. We will look to go upvc would have loved to keep our wooden windows but they are single glazed and rotting away.

We keep changing our minds first anthracite grey, then slate grey then back to white. We need to decide by Saturday be grateful for anyone's feedback... Three years and we still are undecided

If you remain undecided then don't make any decision on Saturday you might regret.
If you are thinking of rendering parts/ all of the house you could take the opportunity to change the shape of some of these which roots this house in an era.
I would concentrate on the front as this will give the most impact.- the window to the left of the front door could be deep but less wide. This section with render could look very smart. I thought the same of the Annex.

Agree would love to find out if there are local exterior designers out there..! Any recommendations too please let me know. struggling to find someone. The reason for the rush for windows at this stage is I now have two small babies and the house is literally freezing with a constant draft. But feel the front of the house needs some love.. Clearer pic of the front of the house is below

This is a specialist company I've seen featured in lots of magazines, have a look at their gallery of projects, some amazing transformations: http://www.backtofrontexteriordesign.com/

Thanks Mrs Mcee, I think they may only be in the Surrey area but will double check. Thanks

Don't render it is high maintenance!

Painted bricks look awful in my opinion

I would keep the brick, render or painting the bricks is additional unnecessary maintenance.
As for the windows, I do love grey frames and think they look great against red brick, however I agree with someone above that at some point they will become dated. There was a time in the 80s when it was popular to replace white with dark brown, but now it looks very dated on most properties. I think white is a safe option, but lots of people on here are very anti upvc and prefer aluminium for the thinner frames.

Whilst you render you can add insulation. And render doesn't have to be high maintenance as you can get self coloured renders that don't need painting

We have a very similar style of house and are also torn between playing it safe with white or light cream upvc windows to brighten the exterior or being a little more adventurous choosing grey. We are also having to replace all guttering, soffits and fascia ( we have 3 dormers to front and 3 at the back) so we are wondering about combining grey window frames, guttering and soffits with white fascias and white front door and white garage door. We are also supposed to decide by tomorrow but I am worried that getting it wrong will be a massive disappointment every time arrive home! i wish there was some way to "photoshop" the options onto an image of our house.

Sorry not to offer any constructive advice but I found it reassuring to find another house owner struggling with a decision just like me!

Hi poppy.. I used Microsoft paint on laptop to get an idea... Grey and white both looked ok... Do you have any pictures of your house?.. An app to change windows would be great!

The current rosewood does look very 80's, but it at least blends in with the dark bricks - I am worried that contrast of lighter windows might look too busy. However, it is going to cost so much to have the jobs done, it seems a shame just to end up replacing like with like.

i do like your current windows, and the house looks presentable as it is. I prefer rosewood over white option. However grey would look quite nice and fresh..

How reassuring that there are other people who are struggling with the vision of grey versus white. We have a 1930 house with red brick and are about to put grey bifolds in and then keep all other Windows as they are which is white as we cannot afford to change these too. But now we've decided to put in a roof lantern into the same room as the bifold doors and that would be white like the Windows but we are now worried the bifolds are going to look wrong and we should change the order to white, but it's the thought of keeping them clean which is worrying me and also do white bifolds look cheaper? Any thoughts gratefully received.

We went for white biofolds and windows in the end.. In my opinion white looks just as good, as it keeps with the theme of the house. No got any photos yet but will try and upload.

Hi Poppy Dog, we are currently in the same position, very similar house and trying to choose between grey and cream windows. What did you decide in the end? Have you any pictures? Hope you were happy with the result!

Hi in the end we went with white. We simply changed the design of the openings and kept white. We felt it was more of a safe bet. Although I still love grey windows

Narvin... we have a similar problem with our house. Could you please upload a picture of your finished job ?