Exterior Window Treatments:
Ideas from Tuscany and Northern Italy
 "These pictures of exterior window treatments from Italy will inspire you with easy-to-copy ideas for a rich, warm Mediterranean look."
Italian windows are all about expression.
They may be simple or fancy, flirty or elegant, baroque or rustic – but there's one thing they all have in common: They're colorful.
This page will probably take an eternity to load, with more than 30 pictures of window treatments. However, it contains a motherlode of ideas and examples that will be worth your wait!
Check out exterior window treatments from
Tuscany, to see
 Have a look at how … and how you, too, can add some old-world romance to your exterior window treatments.
And there's more...
Study pictures of window treatments from city and country homes in the Italian Alps that are all about color and ornament.
See how you could give the exterior of your windows an 'artisan' edge with
 Exterior Window Treatments From Tuscany:
a) Flowers
No matter how small the opening, there's always space for a flowerpot in a Tuscan window.
Oh, make that three, five, or ten flowerpots ;-)
If there is not enough space on the windowsill - and there hardly ever is - the pots are fixed to the wall below the window (which keeps them nicely out of the way of the outdoor window shutters).
Sometimes the flowers 'spill' onto the walls to the sides of the window as well.
There are several ways of creating a display like this, and many Tuscan exterior window treatments combine all of them.
Metal Rings
 Simple but ingenious – bend a metal rod into a round eyelet with a 'handle', and insert that handle securely into the wall. Here's what the construction looks like from above, without the flowers ...
... yep, that's eleven flowerpots ;-)
And with the pots added to the rings, here's what this exterior window treatment looks like close-up.
A wall covered entirely in flowerpots like these is not unheard of in Tuscany!
I like it that Italians prefer regular, run-of-the-mill terracotta pots – I've never seen a flowerpot at a Tuscan window that was glazed, painted, or had a fanciful shape.
This simple style shows off the deep, glowing color of the flowers in all their glory.
Top Tip:
How to Fake Tuscan Exterior Window Treatments ...
... When You're Nowhere Near Tuscany
Version 1)
 You need a length of sturdy garden wire and a strong hook per flowerpot.
Place the hook in the wall where you want the flowerpot to go.
Then find something you can use as a spacer (e.g. some kindling or a pebble) and hold it to the side of the flowerpot. Wrap the wire (not too tightly) around the pot and the spacer a few times.
Then pull out the spacer, and twist the excess wire into a loop. Make sure the wire is tight enough and cannot slip over the rim of the pot, and the eyelet is large enough to fit over the hook. Job done!
 Version 2)
Install a trellis below and/or to the sides of the window.
Wrap garden wire around each flowerpot as in Version 1, and hang loads of pots onto the trellis with butcher hooks.
For added oomph, paint the trellis dark green, or a deep shade of red that echoes your flowers. This is not a strictly Italian style of exterior window treatments, but in the absence of colorful outdoor window shutters, a painted trellis can add interesting texture and color to the facade of your home.
(Return to Top)
Wrought-Iron or Wire Baskets
 This type of exterior window treatments is very common in Tuscany.- Suspend a wire basket from the windowsill,
- strap a few of them to the inside or outside of your balcony, or
- hang them from decorative wrought-iron bars in front of your windows.
Then pack them tightly with pots of herbs and geranium.
In Tuscany, sometimes these metal window boxes have additional rings attached to the rim for even more flowerpots, so they're really overflowing with rich, hot color.
(Return to Top)
Terracotta Wall Planters
 Wall mounted terracotta planters like these are easy to install.
If they have a wide enough hole in the bottom you can plant straight into them ...
... otherwise it's better to fill them with potted plants to ensure sufficient drainage.
(Notice how the planters are all quite simple but still different enough to add some interest to this type of exterior window treatment.)
(Return to Top)
Wall Crawl
 If it suits your tastes and your home, you could simply grow your exterior window treatments.
In Tuscany, the plant of choice is often star jasmine (trachelospermum jasminoides), as shown in this picture.
Star jasmine loves sunshine, can handle heat, and the elegant white blossoms have a lovely fragrance.
If you live in a cooler part of the world, try hardy climbers like - climbing hydrangea (hydrangea anomala subsp. petiolaris)
- a climbing rose like Gloire de Dijon (a.k.a. "Old Glory") or the beautifully scented Madame Alfred Carrière,
- a clematis, for example the vigorous, evergreen clematis armandii,
- or a wisteria.
(Return to Top)
 Exterior Window Treatments From Tuscany:
b) Wooden ShuttersOutdoor window shutters serve several purposes. They ...- keep a room cool (well, sort of) and dark
- can often be angled out to allow airflow while providing shade (as in the photo left) and
- punctuate the façade of a house with color and texture.
Occasionally, outdoor window shutters can serve to install audio entertainment as well (photo right ;-)
In addition, many Tuscan windows have indoor window shutters. They are either fixed to the interior wall, or directly to the window frame.
(Return to Top)
Exterior Window Treatments From Tuscany:
c) Awnings
 Not all windows in Tuscany have outdoor window shutters.
Those that don't sometimes have an outside curtain for sun protection.
It can consist of just a piece of sailcloth hung across the top of the window ...
... or it can be a regular curtain of outdoor fabric in front of a balcony door, suspended from a curtain rod on the outside wall.
On hot days, these curtains are often turned into makeshift awnings by slipping them across the balcony railing.
Modern awnings like the one to the right are relatively rare in old Tuscan villages and small towns; you'll see them mostly on new buildings.
(Return to Top)
Exterior Window Treatments From Northern Italy:
a) "Eyeliner" Paint
The above are pictures of window treatments on small farmhouses in the Italian Alps. I like the simplicity and effectiveness of these three-color schemes.
The second window from the right combines the crisp look of the exterior window treatment with a useful function for the interior: Painting the recess white helps reflect sunlight into the room and, to some extent, makes up for the smallness of the window.
These two pictures of window treatments from Northern Italy take the 'eyeliner' approach a bit further by adding some flourish and, if you look at the left photo, a stylized keystone ornament. It's an easy-to-copy look that can be very effective, even if you just add a skinny line around the window and a very small ornament (in a contrast color) above the center of the lintel.
(Return to Top)
Exterior Window Treatments From Northern Italy:
b) Baroque Inspiration
Many antique town centers in Northern Italy retain beautiful Baroque features in their architecture - but you don't need to live in a 17th-century home in Italy to be able to enjoy this style yourself.
Last spring, I visited some towns in the foothills of the Italian Alps and took photos of exterior window treatments you could adopt for your own home, wherever you happen to live.
So here are some pictures of window treatments that show both the original idea and their translation into a modern or simplified version.
The photos above show a smart take on the ornament above the lintel. The ornament in the picture to the right was carved out of wet plaster at the time the house received its outer coat. The contrast between the white and light gray is minimal and, in combination with the 3D surface, gives this exterior window treatment a sophisticated look.
 To the right, one of my favorite ideas:
Palladian grandeur rendered with a humble paintbrush!
(And notice how the window surround in the "original" [left] makes the window look at least twice its actual size!)
 Next, a very pretty but labor-intensive version of the Baroque garland ornament (photo left).
This is quite a high maintenance solution for everyday exterior window treatments - but could you see yourself creating your own version of this for the next Holiday season?
How about binding an evergreen Christmas garland with red ribbon, and planting the window box with fiery red cyclamen? (Just a thought.)
Anyway, here's another batch of pictures of window treatments:
This type of corner design was popular from the Renaissance onward. Of course it's really nice to have a 3D version made by a plasterer, but it's also expensive. You could easily do something similar using masonry paint instead (there's another example of this in the next chapter, below).
(Return to Top)
Exterior Window Treatments From Northern Italy:
c) Color Schemes
Having started out this page by praising the Italians' love of color, I feel I owe you at least some examples of how to use that color in your own exterior window treatments.
Here they are (they also make nice house paint color ideas!):
 Buff yellow and green, with some white thrown in, is a popular color combination on Italian houses.
You'll find yellows with a lot of terracotta in them, as well as zingy, lime-infused tones, but the latter are more rare.
If your house is painted white or gray (or any other non-yellow color), skip the yellow altogether and just use two tones of green for your exterior window treatments!
 Here's an example of one of the most-used color combinations in home decorating (and in nature): red and green.
Unlike candy colors, these pastel tints are grayed and mellow, as if bleached by decades of sunlight.
If you've been to Italy, or had a look at the page about Tuscan color schemes, you will recognize 'dusty' pink as one of the mainstays of Italian house color schemes – not just for exterior window treatments.
These colors work well under a Mediterranean sun, but they tend to appear out of place in the cool Northern light.
The next set of colors on this list is subtly elegant, with not a trace of warmth to it, except for the deep brown.
This is the most 'northern' house color scheme of the collection (the colors would be perfectly at home in a Gustavian interior.)
You can use this combination successfully for wall color ideas anywhere in the world, under any type of light.
If you were to add flowers as exterior window treatments, reds and pinks look great here, with fresh (or dark) green foliage.
The last sample in this collection is taken from a Baroque-style mural in Northern Italy – a colorful exterior window treatment that was extended to include the entire wall.
I'm not suggesting that you paint your home in all these colors at once, but you could utilize the little swatches (or the whole mural) as a starting point for some house paint color ideas.
I'd say you're safe to pick any two swatches and combine them with a creamy or chalky white.
You could also dream up successful house paint color ideas from the top three, middle three, or lower three color swatches.
Whatever you do, add white accents with a liberal hand!
Here are a few ideas for house color schemes and exterior window treatments:- paint the walls buff yellow and add very light gray 'eyeshadow' and cotto red 'eyeliner' paint around your windows, or
- paint the house a warm, misty gray, the window recess white, then add white windowboxes and red or sage green outdoor window shutters. Or,
- paint the walls a sage green, the window recess white, and add very pale, smoky blue 'eyeliner' and/or outdoor window shutters as exterior window treatments.
Return to Top or read more about ...
... Tuscan Window Treatments
... Country Window Treatments
... French Country Curtains
… if you would like to be kept informed with news and updates to this site, please subscribe to my blog and/or free e-zine - it's simple, and keeps you supplied with ...
... fresh home decorating news and ideas year-round!
|
Return from Exterior Window Treatments to Window Treatment Ideas
Return from Exterior Window Treatments to Dream Home Decorating Homepage
|
