The Most Requested RAL Classic Colours

The attributes of a window can be broadly placed into two categories. First is the the technical side, which would include performance and usability; and second is arguably more superficial, which would include glazing bars, colours and frame moulding. We’ve talked about all the performance aspects in the linked blog posts, and glazing bars are confusing enough that they certainly needed a blog post of their own… So, here, we’ll focus on the colours and profiles for windows.

There are around 200 RAL Classic Colours, but the number of shades that are normally picked for windows is far less than that. And that’s not necessarily because people keep to a factory’s standard range. RAL7032 is one of the most popular choices for us, but almost all our manufacturers charge a premium for it.

Our most commonly sold RAL colour by far is RAL 9010 (Pure White) and, in descending order, our 10 most commonly sold options are shown below. As you can see, grey is certainly “in” at the moment! Anthracite Grey is incredibly popular, and the this popularity means that it’s relatively easy to find other components of your project to match. If you don’t have to match in with other elements, we’d encourage you to take a look at some alternatives to set your project apart from the rest.

RAL9010 – Pure white

RAL9001 – Cream

RAL7016 – Anthracite grey

RAL7035 – Light grey

RAL7015 – Slate grey

RAL7032 – Pebble grey

RAL7031 – Blue grey

RAL7012 – Basalt grey

RAL9005 – Jet black

RAL7030 – Stone grey

We’ve shown some slightly less common, but still well-liked options too. Agate Grey has appeared on some very special homes, and we were very pleased at how well it turned out next to a red brick. And, whilst having bright yellow windows all around might be a bit much…having a solid yellow door with a dark grey surround looks stunning.

RAL1018 – Zinc yellow

RAL7024 – Graphite grey

RAL7033 – Cement grey

RAL7026 – Granite grey

RAL9003 – Signal white

RAL7038 – Agate grey

RAL5008 – Grey blue

RAL6003 – Olive green

RAL9001 – Cream

Many people choose to use a separate colour on the interior and exterior of their windows, commonly this is RAL 9010 Pure white, or RAL 9001 Cream white on the inside as it tends not to clash with internal wall colours (even if those internal wall colours haven’t been chosen yet).

In our experience, people are most likely to have a darker colour on the exterior when using a dual colour system.

All of our aluminium-clad timber options have no additional cost associated with having a different colour internally and externally, though they still may have surcharges for non-standard colours.

Some of our suppliers also allow for non-RAL colours:

First: the granite colours from metallic textured paints. These are only available on our the aluminium parts of a product, and will add to the cost in most cases.

Futura Gris 2100 Sable

Futura Gris 2150 Sable

Futura Gris 2500 Sable

Futura Gris 2900 Sable

Futura Noir 900 Sable

Futura Noir 2200 Sable

Timber Stains and Lacquer Finishes

Many of our timber options allow for either a lacquer finish or options for different stains to give the effect of various timber species.

While timber stains can mimic the colour of another timber they sadly can’t show the same grain structure. It’ll be less noticeable if there’s no other wood nearby to compare them too, just don’t expect a slow grown Nordic pine with an oak stain to look identical to oak, it’s more hinting at the idea. It’s for this reason that we don’t recommend trying to match a timber stain with the actual timber species nearby.

Our most common timber stain request (shown below) is pine which looks like oak. It’s not an absolutely perfect match to real oak – the grain structure can’t be changed – but it is always much less expensive with far less required maintenance.

Stain E3

For hardwood items, there’s also the oiled approach. This comes with the important warning: please re-oil hardwood products regularly. Hardwoods, such as oak and mahogany, are always more expensive compared to softwood item and will not have the same level of thermal performance. Due to these downsides, we and our factories don’t offer many options in this category any more. But oak door panels are still popular: these still need regular maintenance, but are able to achieve Passivhaus levels of insulation. U-vales for our oak panel doors can be as low as 0.7 overall, thanks to an aluminium vapour barrier separating the oak from a foam-filled core.

PUR Foam filled panel door with Oak veneer

Most of our suppliers have the option of decorative changes to their interior (and sometimes exterior) profile. Generally, the addition of decorative options does include a slight price increase. Not huge, but just enough to allow for the extra time needed on the respective factory machinery.