Windows Styles for Queen Anne Houses

Whether you're replacing windows in your Queen Anne home, or looking for construction windows for a modern build, choosing windows that are true and honest to the architectural style is vital. Keep reading to find out what window style will suit your Queen Anne home and how embracing modern window technology doesn't mean a neglect of authenticity.

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What is Queen Anne Style?
Windows for Queen Anne Style Houses
Featured Property: The Carson Mansion

What is Queen Anne Style?

Elaborate, colorful, and fanciful, Queen Anne architectural styles are a subcategory under Victorian architecture. Its popularity climax happened in the U.S. from 1880 to 1910. Even with excessive textures and an abundance of decoration, Queen Anne homes are far from hodgepodge but exude charm, romance, and poetry. Shingle Style architecture proceeded Queen Anne homes and appeared similar, yet more subdued in the embellishments and more expansive for holiday accommodation.

During the 1870s, American architect H.H. Richardson designed the Watts-Sherman house in the Queen Anne Style. From then, Americans went crazy for it and personalized the style for their American dream, appearing in pattern books for home builds around the country.

Features that are typical of the Queen Anne Style comprise:

Creative Characteristics - asymmetrical, with an assorted boldness that made use of contrast in textures. Loud motifs and decorative woodwork cover most surfaces.
Towers or Turrets - square, circular, or polygonal, this feature was often adorned with a roof that had its unique shaping, slate shingles, and copper canopy ornament.
Porches - wrap-around porches with decorative brackets or posts were essential to detached Queen Anne style homes. Townhouses made use of second-story patios, occasionally recessed.
Several Materials - patterned brick or stone, slate, occasionally stucco, wood shingles, and clapboard. Decorative stone panels and custom-molded and colored bricks are also appropriate for expression.
Doors - transom windows, and carved decorations typically surround the main door.
Roof - steeply pitched with a complexity that made decorative use of gables, dormers, and turrets or towers.
Windows - oriel, and bay windows are typical in this architectural style. Functional windows were usually single-hung or double-hung, and the use of stained glass is a genuine adornment in Queen Anne homes.

Windows for Queen Anne Houses

Windows are not excluded from the extravagance of the Queen Anne style. Different combinations of windows make up bay windows and oriel windows. A bay window is a collection of windows that project outward from the home walls, creating a protruding shape from a room. Oriel windows are similar, smaller versions of bay windows, but do not reach the ground and are used on the second floor.

Functional windows in Queen Anne homes are usually tall single or double-hung sash windows. Sash windows have one or two sliding sections that rise or lower in a groove rather than outwards. These windows can have clear glass, or sometimes the top sash will have simple square grille patterns or cottage grille patterns.

Specialty-shaped picture (fixed) windows are freely used in this architecture style, presented as cameo windows, Palladian windows, porthole, or half-round shapes.

Freedom in Colors!

Art glass is popular and creates another feature in a Queen Anne residence. The colorful, decorative glass is often present in transom windows or the top window of a sash window. Transom windows appear above doors or other fixed picture windows. When it comes to home colors in general, Queen Anne homes are not limiting, and homeowners or architects have the flexibility to go with their preferences. Old Victorian homes can be quite bright and use the entire color palette, sometimes leaning towards darker tones. For modern homes, more brilliant colors are standard and clean, light tones are preferred.

Featured Property

There is no better example than the Carson Mansion in Eureka, CA↗. The sumptuous fairy-tale house built in 1885 displays feature after feature of typical Queen Anne characteristics. From towers, twisted pillars, bay windows, porches, and an abundance of decoration, this home is said to be the most photographed Queen Anne building in the United States.

Your Updated Queen Anne

Old rickety windows in a historic home can be a nightmare. Today, window manufacturers go above and beyond to create windows that aren't only a piece of glass in a frame. New technology can be suited to your local climate. Just because your home came from another era, it doesn't mean you can't appreciate the technology from your own.

Victorian homes are adored for their decorative quality. Enjoy the freedom and creativity that this home-style affords you and create a home that can hold memories for many more years.