lizzie nh. I don't have an answer for you, but am very interested in the replies you'll get. I do actually have a old house (1838), but it has new windows :( (which are white, inside and out). I've be starting to consider the same exact thing. Good luck on your "aging" of your home.

most folks in old houses that i know ignore them, or b*!#$ about them, paint the way they want, and save their pennies till they can afford real windows.

In NH is Carlisle Floors, check them out. Beautiful!

I know of Carlisle floors... absolutely gorgeous floors, but we plan to install and finish ourselves to save a bit of $$$.

Unfortunately it doesn't really make financial sense for us to change out the windows and everything else, since they're essentially brand new... makes more sense to pour time, money, and effort into an already old house rather than attempt to recreate all the details in this bland new house. The workmanship in this house (which was a spec house) just isn't high enough quality... we'd basically be rebuilding the whole thing, and still not have the genuine old house I want. Still, I'm trying to make relatively minor changes to add character. Perhaps I will stick with the white trim.

(There are plenty of very old houses around here, which can be had for a song but my husband grew up in a 1970s suburban house in another region of the country and I have not sold him on the old house idea, just yet. Grrrrr.....)

Here is a picture for you with the white on the inside.

Our original windows have been patched in the past with what looks like white bondo, so when I went to strip, my only option was to leave any areas that were damaged as white. Now that it is done, I kind of like it. If the windows were dark, they would actually look smaller.

Lizzie, my first choice would be to paint the walls in the sage/olive or ochre. I'm afraid having the trim painted in color while the windows and walls on either side were white would draw too much attention to the trim alone, rather than the windows as a whole.

I have always been kind of an "anything but white" (as one poster here has called it) person but as we gradually replace our cheap (and dark) aluminum replacement windows with wood windows, I'm working with colour around the windows and beginning to appreciate white or cream. The reason is that when looking out the window during the day, if the frame is dark the window looks like a hole - the framing is so dark in contrast that it is not visible. Of course, if you look at the window frame when lights are on in the room and the curtains closed, it looks fine.

White frames, whether it's the actual window box or the moulding around it, pick up the light that is coming in and play with it, illuminating the room better and also allowing the trim, and its detail, to be better seen. I think in Daniaadele's lovely photo, above, you can imagine that if the windowboxes were not white, you would not be able to see any detail of the inside wall or window.

So while I like coloured windows in theory, in reality they are maybe not the best idea, and maybe it is a good thing you have white mullions!

BUT I am also a big fan of doing what you like, or at least trying it, otherwise you end up staring at it for the rest of your life wondering what it would have looked like. Can you pre-try the painted moulding concept by painting some boards in sage and propping them up in front of the window?

Karin L

I read this post about an hour ago, and didn't think I had anything to contribute. Now I am watching History Dectives on tv, and they showed a picture taken in the early 1900s of a couple out in front of their home. The white house has black trim AROUND the window (in a rectangle) and the windows them selves including the mullions are painted white!
I just thought it was interesting and curious. So your windows are not so Un historical after all1
Kathy