Architectural Styles in Wales
Wales has a considerable proportion of rural and remote areas with plenty of hills and valleys featuring stone-built dwellings. In coastal areas, the stone-built terrace with bay windows is a typical style. For the towns and cities of Wales, house styles are typically 1930s and 1960s semis and millennium style new build houses.
Welsh stone cottages
The Welsh countryside has plenty of traditional stone-built dwellings and cottages. Most of these properties have small windows featuring leaded glass or Georgian bars.
A traditional farmhouse dwelling in mid and south Wales was the Longhouse which is a long cottage with a passageway in between to house animals at one end and people in the other. The cottage is styled with white limewash walls, slate roofs and small windows.
Another type of traditional stone cottage is the Snowdonia house. A two-storey stone-built cottage with a distinctive silhouette of two chimney stacks - one placed at each gable end. Slate roofs and small windows are characteristic of this type of cottage.
For Welsh stone Cottages, we recommend:
Windows: Wooden flush casement windows (sometimes uPVC) with traditional Georgian bar styling or leaded glass.
Doors: Composite door or stable door in white, cream, brown or grey muted shades.
Victorian terrace coastal houses
Victorian terraced houses can be found in coastal towns across Wales, such as Llandudno.
Terraced houses feature bay windows on the front living room that offer panoramic views. The original windows would be wooden sash windows and over time most of these have been replaced with uPVC casement windows.
Houses near the coast are often rendered and painted in pastel colours. To complement a coloured house, white windows and a brightly painted front door look the best.
For Victorian properties, we recommend:
Windows: Sash windows in UPVC or wooden sash windows, in white.
Doors: Composite panel door with glazed upper panels and stained glass, in bright colours. For the coast, bright turquoise, pinks, greens and blues are popular choices.
1930s and 1960s semi-detached house
Across towns and suburban areas of Wales, such as Wrexham, Cardiff and Swansea is the semi-detached house.
The 1930s semi has half brick and half render or pebble dash walls. The 1960s house has walls of light brown, grey or buff-coloured brick half-clad with weatherboards or concrete hanging tiles.
Earlier 1930s semis usually have faceted bay windows sometimes featuring leaded glass. In the 60s, windows became bigger in size with large casement picture windows, often in aluminium frames.
For semi-detached properties, we recommend:
Windows: Casement windows in uPVC or aluminium and leaded glass or internal Georgian bars with frames in white, grey or black.
Door: Composite panel door with glazed panels and decorative glass. Early 1930s properties suit traditional colours such as white, black, brown and blue, or a natural varnished timber finish. 1960s houses suit brighter colours for doors.