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Wood interiors--do any look nice?

Fori
9 years ago

Still window shopping and appreciate all the assistance. :)

It turns out we want stained wood window interiors on most of our new windows and sliding doors. Some are replacement windows and most are new construction. (I think the replacements will have the hole gutted out enough to go with the same type of installation though.)

Looking at windows in a showroom, it seems like the wood interiors are sort of, well, not furniture quality. I suspect I need to lower my expectations.

Are there nicer ones? We want a cherry interior which apparently knocks out many of the lines we'd been considering. We looked at Andersen Eagle, Marvin Ultimate, and some sort of JeldWen (because those were the ones that particular showroom had that were available in cherry).
I admit I have no experience with modern windows, but they all looked so darn cheap, inside and out. Ugly seams, sloppy woodwork. And of course they aren't.

In the interest of frugality (as much as can be had at this point), can something like a Marvin Ultimate be placed next to a Marvin Integrity and look the same on the exterior? (Interiors would be different rooms.)

The house is a one story and many of the windows open onto patios and so the exteriors will be highly visible. They will also be shaded and protected from weather and we have a mild climate anyway.

Do any wood-interior windows look nice, both sides? Did I just see bad ones on display? Any suggestions? Thanks!

Comments (10)

  • lkbum_gw
    9 years ago

    See link below (sorry to others who have seen this multiple times). Interior window look will be greatly influenced by stain and trim. We had a great builder and trim carpenter followed by a fantastic painter. A good painter can stain any common wood to look like any species. Ours were finished to match rustic cherry cabinets. A little trim goes a long way to dress things up. Ultimates and Integrity can be mixed. Our large round top was an Ultimate, the rest were Integrity. These pics were made during construction a couple of years ago. We are still pleased with the windows.

    Here is a link that might be useful: Link to Integrity Wood windows

  • PRO
    Windows on Washington Ltd
    9 years ago

    The Integrity and Ultimate will have a bit different look to the interior but will both be wood.

    Might be that the samples are beat up or that you have a false idea of what they can look like.

    I haven't seen any Marvin Ultimates that look cheap to my eyes.

  • millworkman
    9 years ago

    As to the exterior Ultimates and Integrity will look quite a bit different unfortunately.

  • Fori
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Those do look great, LK! Thanks for sharing. We hadn't planned on staining the cherry which makes it harder to match with a different wood.

    WoW, you're correct--I have no idea what a good window is supposed to look like. Until my current house, I've never even had a place where you'd be close enough to an exterior window to examine it. (Now I do, which is one reason the casements that open onto the patio will become gliders. Ouch.)

    So they don't match well enough to be an (exterior) matched set of windows, but if they have the same color cladding I can probably do a bathroom window around the corner without it looking weird?

    Thanks all, I really do appreciate it!

  • lkbum_gw
    9 years ago

    Fori, we did not stain the cherry, we stained the other woods to match the cherry... Hard to get a photot that show this... But, the built in you see is rustic cherry, the doorway next to it is poplar and the window trim is a mix of pine and poplar. You can see they came out pretty well, there is a difference but they do not clash. Sorry for pic quality, it's really bright today and ipads don't do a good job, but you get the idea.

  • lkbum_gw
    9 years ago

    On mixing integrity and ultimate, I was referring to a custom shape such as a round top ultimate and integrity door as shown. The colors are identical. As Millworkman pointed out, the differences in the exteriors of their windows is pretty significant. We had no choice on the round top, a size this large was not available in Integrity (at least at that time).

  • PRO
    Out of the Woods Inc.- Window & Door Specialists
    9 years ago

    If you want another alternate look into Kolbe Ultra series windows. They offer cherry wood interiors, they'll be right there on price of Marvin. I have several cherry wood displays in my showroom, they look great.

  • Fori
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Thanks all! I will try to locate a Kolbe showroom, as well as a better Marvin display!

    LK, those windows certainly look good together--I would not complain about that! I just have one spot where there are two picture windows side-by-side (but in different rooms) that would have to be the same on the exterior. Many of the others are in locations where it won't matter and color matching is good enough.

    That mix of woods works really well in your space. Our space is, well, less dramatic. :) We can't get away with too many finishes in there. I don't know if it's possible to stain pine to match unstained cherry; the grains are very different if not masked by a little color. And of course cherry changes over time...

    Do you find the pine to be hard enough for doors in high traffic areas?

  • lkbum_gw
    9 years ago

    Fori, that's a good point on the pine. Yes, it is too soft for the doors. They have some dings, a harder wood would be much better. The pine ended up matchning the cherry pretty well. the poplar which is harder to stain looks very close also (there are several youtubes on staining poplar to look like chderry). We have rustic cherry, so there is a LOT of variation in the wood.

  • Fori
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Oh, nice. I do love that look.

    I'd probably be okay going with fiberglass or some non-wood interior, but the spouse wants wood. I wonder if that will change once we get pricing. :D

    Window selection is hard! Normally I'd take my cue from the rest of the house, but they don't make them like that any more and apparently they don't even make fake versions of fifties aluminum skinny windows.