Decades of design
Colours can preserve our heritage and enhance our future, according to Renolit.
The age of a property is often identifiable by its architectural style; so-called ‘heritage’ features have a historical importance that makes them instantly recognisable.
The UK renovation market no longer rips out but replaces, restores and reconstructs; helping preserve our traditions and culture. In maintaining these traditions, windows are key to the design of any building. The combination of window style and colour are critical elements in establishing a building’s architectural style or pointing to a particular period of time.
Renolit has been at the forefront of exterior surface technology for over 30 years and produces Renolit Exofol, the original exterior surface film. Renolit explores different historical and architectural periods and shows how their extensive range of solid colours, woodgrains and textured surfaces can be used to achieve a genuine heritage appearance.
‘Tudor’ is still one of the most recognisable housing types with its roots in 16th century England. Exposed framed houses were built incorporating black windows, with white wattle and daub walls. Black and white remains as practical as it is striking, and transcends time, through art deco to the sleek 1990s and Tudor revival renovations. All can be can easily be realised by using either Renolit’s black brown or the new true black.
During the 18th century, elegant Georgian homes had symmetrical facades with restrained ornate decorations; tall windows with ‘Georgian bars’ are synonymous with this period. Reproducing windows today to suit properties from this period or style is often achieved with sliding sash windows.
Choose Renolit’s white or cream-white with a woodgrain textured surface to create a traditional painted appearance, or for a wood varnish effect this style of house is ideally suited to rich, dark woods such as the Renolit black cherry/rosewood.
At this same time, the majority of the population still lived in the rural settings. Quintessentially British stone built farmhouses and popular barn conversions look fabulous with windows installed with any of Renolit’s recently introduced Heritage Colours in either sand-stone Windsor, brown-beige Balmoral or Buckingham, and Kensington greys, each available with an Elegant Ash woodgrain surface texture.
As we move into the 19th and 20th centuries, architectural eras continue to be designated by the reigning monarch: Victorian design brought ornate asymmetrically constructed homes while slightly later Edwardian houses became less ornate and often featured small leaded windows. Townhouses were constructed with new machine-made red bricks, which can be complemented by strong colours such as Dark Green or Slate Grey.
The 1930s ‘semi’ is one of the most common housing styles in Britain today, instantly recognisable by a hipped roof and curved bay windows. Usually free of renovation restrictions, these homes offer fabulous opportunity for re-styling. Typically incorporating refined casement windows, this style of house is ideally suited to stylish oak designs such as Winchester XA. These homes nearly always feature a garden at the rear where colours such as Chartwell Green, are perfect for a conservatory or orangery.
Modern volume construction from the 1970s and 1980s are now starting to look a little decayed and tired. Mass housing estates became the norm, industrial units sprung up in brown field sites, and social and educational facilities boomed. Replacing pebble dashed or tiled feature fronts with coloured panelling, co-ordinated with modern casement windows, brings exterior facades right up to date. For example, combine Siena PN with Hazy Grey or Irish Oak with Chocolate Brown.
Anthracite Grey has forged ahead as the colour of preference in many millennium age new-build locations. With the development of SST (solar shield technology), Renolit’s darker colour options now come with the added security of reducing heat build-up so you can be confident of your installations.
Modern greys and a deep, dark black combined with the new Ulti-Matt smooth surface are an ideal contrast or complement the latest rendering colours. The latest generation of new woodgrains also build on this grey mega-trend with products such as ANteak, Monument Oak or Mountain Oak. The latest innovation is to combine the most realistic wood designs with tactile surfaces that replicate the feel of natural timbers, such Trojan VLF. All of which are a delight to the architect or designer.
No matter the property’s age or the style of windows, you can rely on there being an original Renolit exterior film to suit your development with approximately 100 different solid colours, woodgrain decors and structured surfaces to choose from.