Design tricks to make new windows look like old Crittall windows

[BlogOnTheTyne]

Just had 2 new windows put into front of house building development of garages (Two garages either side have been made into living rooms). The builders tried to get something to match the existing 1930s Crittall windows but you can just tell they're fake and look plastic.

I couldn't afford the real thing - at around £3,000 per new Crittall window and will have to live with what I've not got but am trying to come up with clever design ideas to make the new windows blend in better.

Has anyone done this? One idea I had was to get the builders to put a wooden frame around the windows to match colour and frames of other windows - but would that just look silly? They'd basically have to attach pieces of wood to the brickwork around the exterior of the window.

Only other idea was to put window baskets below each new window and grow lovely pot plants that might obscure the 'newness' of each window and help it to blend it. But might that just draw the eye even more to the new windows?

I'm hoping that some creative and practical people on here can help me or maybe have done something themselves to make new windows 'fit in' better with the old?

[OliviaBenson]

I'm sorry but I don't think you will ever get plastic windows to look like crittal- they are fundamentally different. You can get crittal repaired, or could have looked at aluminium as an alternative modern material which could have been designed to look more like a crittal window.

[BlogOnTheTyne]

These are not actually plastic but some kind of glass and aluminium but they just don't look as good. Has anyone found a clever way to improve the 'look' even whilst accepting you can't make them be exactly like the old Crittal windows?

If you have window boxes below the sills, does this draw the eye to the flowers/plants and away from the new glass or does it just highlight the difference between old and new windows?

Has anyone had a fake frame put round a new window, to echo similar ones round the other original windows? Does this work? Any ideas?

[neepsandtatties]

Wall climbing ivy might 'soften' the look and distract. Or a trellis for a climbing plant along-side?

Can you post a photo to your profile so we can take a look? (taking a photo anyway is a good idea for yourself, as it might suggest ways of drawing attention away from the differences).

But to be honest, I've found in most of these situations, after a couple of months you stop noticing it..!

[EastwickWitch]

A climbing plant is a great idea. What about a Wisteria?