Double-Hung Replacement Windows Keep the Character of This Mechanicsville Home

This Mechanicsville home has an unusual origin story. When it was built in 2000, its design came from a house the homeowner had seen and admired in Montana. Working with local contractors, the homeowner recreated that house here in Virginia, from its brick gables and light siding to the arched windows that crown the dining room and sunroom. 

More than two decades later, the homeowner was ready to replace the original windows with ones that would improve energy efficiency, refresh the home’s curb appeal and hold up for years to come. Working with Pella’s Richmond showroom, every window in the house was replaced with Pella® 250 Series vinyl windows in white. The project included double-hung windows in nearly every room along with custom-shaped picture windows that recreate the home’s signature arches. 

Longevity was one of the homeowner’s three goals, and it shaped the choice of material. On a home with this many windows, wood frames would mean a recurring schedule of painting or staining. Vinyl windows don’t need to be painted or refinished, and Pella’s vinyl is made with a fade-resistant formula designed to hold its color over time. 

Every new window is white on both the interior and exterior, with white locks to match. Outside, the frames line up with the home’s white exterior trim against red brick and light siding. Inside, they blend into the bright white trim already surrounding each opening. Rather than introducing a new color, the project keeps the look the home was designed with and gives it a clean, consistent finish. 

The dining room window is one of the home’s defining features and one of the details most closely tied to its original design. Three double-hung windows sit side by side beneath a wide arched window that follows the curve of the trim above it. Replacing it meant matching that shape rather than settling for a standard rectangle. 

The new unit pairs three double-hung windows with an arch-top picture window, all joined together at the factory. Because the pieces arrive aligned and connected as one unit, the large opening goes together cleanly and reads as a single window from inside and out. 

A starburst grille pattern fans out across the arch, carrying forward the detail from the original window, while traditional grids divide the sashes below. The arched glass is also tempered, meaning it’s designed to break into small, less sharp pieces if it’s ever broken. It’s a sensible safety measure for a large pane of glass set above the rest of the window. 

The sunroom carries the same idea. One wall holds three tall double-hung windows with a half-circle picture window over the center unit, again finished with a starburst grille. A second group of three double-hung windows completes the room, with grids that run three panes high to suit the taller sashes. 

Like every window in this home, each sunroom unit was custom sized to its opening rather than chosen from a list of standard sizes. A house built from a one-of-a-kind design rarely has uniform openings, and ordering each window to fit means it fills its space without oversized gaps to cover up. The sunroom’s double-hung windows are also sized to meet minimum egress requirements, so the room has a second way out in an emergency. 

Better energy efficiency was at the top of the homeowner’s list, and much of that improvement starts with the glass. Every window uses insulated glass with dual Low-E coatings and argon gas sealed between the panes. The Low-E coatings reflect heat back toward its source, helping keep the sun’s heat outside during Virginia summers and holding warmth indoors through the winter. The argon, which is denser than air, slows the transfer of heat through the glass. 

Each double-hung window closes with a cam-action lock that draws the sashes together as it locks. That tighter fit where the two sashes meet helps cut down on drafts, which matters to comfort as much as the glass itself. 

Traditional grids were part of the home’s original look, so the homeowner kept them, now as grilles-between-the-glass. Because the white contoured grilles are sealed between the panes, the glass stays smooth on both sides and easy to clean. 

The grille pattern shifts with each window. The larger double-hung windows carry a fuller grid, while the smaller windows in the primary bathroom and laundry room use a simpler four-pane pattern that stays in proportion to their size. In the guest bathroom, a long, narrow picture window brings in daylight with a single row of grilles. 

InView™ screens, designed for a clearer view than conventional screen cloth, were added to the operable windows throughout the living spaces. The two garage windows were the exception and were ordered without screens. 

One priority shaped how this project was installed: the home’s interior trim was to stay right where it was. Rather than tearing each opening down to the framing, the installers removed the old windows and set the new ones into the existing openings. New interior stops hold each window in place and were painted to blend with the trim around them. 

For homeowners, this approach means less disruption, no new casing to finish and woodwork that keeps its original lines. Sill adapters and head expanders included with most of the windows help each unit fit snugly at the top and bottom of its existing opening. 

Outside, the installers wrapped the exterior trim in coil trim wherever the windows meet vinyl siding. Coil trim is a formed metal covering that protects the wood beneath from the weather and gives each window a clean white surround that won’t need regular repainting. 

This home began as one homeowner’s effort to bring a house from Montana to Virginia, and its arched windows were a big part of what made that design work. The replacement keeps those details intact: the arch over the dining room, the half-circle in the sunroom and the traditional grids throughout. Behind that familiar look, the new windows bring dual Low-E glass and cam-action locks that help the house hold its temperature through the seasons, along with vinyl frames that won’t need repainting. From the brick front to the siding at the back, fresh white windows give the home the curb appeal the homeowner set out to achieve.