Black Fiberglass Replacement Windows Give This Basehor Home a Low-Maintenance Update

This Basehor home pairs two very different exteriors. The front is brick, with a tall gable facing the street and a dormer set into the roofline above the porch. The back is finished in light siding, where a deck looks out toward a stand of trees. With windows on every side of the house, the homeowners needed a replacement that would look just as right against brick as it does against siding. 

They came to Pella with three goals: better energy efficiency, an updated look and windows that wouldn’t need much upkeep. Those priorities led them to Pella® Impervia® fiberglass, and they replaced every window in the home along with the sliding patio door off the dining area, all finished in black.

Easy maintenance was near the top of the homeowners’ list, and it shaped the choice of material more than anything else. Wood frames need periodic painting or staining to stay protected, and that work multiplies when every window in the house is on the schedule. 

Fiberglass windows are built to take that chore off the list. Pella’s fiberglass won’t rot or corrode, and its factory powder-coat finish is designed to resist chipping, chalking and fading, so the frames don’t need to be painted or refinished. On a whole-home project, that adds up to a lot less exterior upkeep in the years ahead.

For the updated look, the homeowners chose black windows, a color that carries across the whole exterior. On the front of the house, the wide window grouping beneath the brick gable now has a crisp dark outline against the warm brick and light mortar. Above the porch, the dormer window gets the same treatment against tan siding, so the front of the home reads as one consistent update. 

Against the home’s cream-colored trim and gutters, the black frames add contrast without competing with the texture of the brick. Because the color is part of the factory finish rather than a coat of paint applied on site, it’s designed to hold up to Kansas sun without needing a touch-up.

Energy efficiency was the third priority, and frame material plays a bigger role there than many homeowners expect. Kansas summers and winters bring wide temperature swings, and frames that expand and contract with the weather can gradually work against the seals around the glass. 

Pella’s fiberglass frames have virtually no expansion and contraction, which helps them keep a consistent seal as temperatures change. That stability also lowers the risk of seal failure over time, helping the windows hold their performance from one season to the next.

On the back of the house, four tall windows are grouped side by side along the deck, facing the trees at the edge of the yard. Fiberglass is strong enough to support large panes of glass with slim frames, so from inside, the view is mostly glass rather than frame. 

From the deck, the same black frames stand out against the light siding, tying the back of the house to the brick front. It’s a good example of how one color choice can bring together a home that uses different exterior materials on different sides.

The project also replaced the door leading from the dining area out to the deck with a new sliding patio door made from the same fiberglass as the windows. A sliding door glides along a track instead of swinging open, so it doesn’t take up floor space around the table inside or the furniture on the deck. 

Inside, the door’s black frame sits against bright white trim, giving it a clean outline that matches the windows. Choosing fiberglass for the door as well means an opening that gets used every day has the same low-maintenance finish and stable frame as the rest of the house.

Before the project, the windows on the brick front and the sided back were simply part of the house. Now they're what connects the two. Every opening, from the dormer above the porch to the four tall windows along the deck, shares the same black frame, and the sliding door off the dining area matches them. 

For the homeowners, the bigger change may be what they no longer have to think about. With fiberglass frames that don't need painting and hold their shape through Kansas weather, the windows are no longer a recurring item on the to-do list.