Height of Edwardian rooms and window heads?

[Liam]

Hello! This is my first post there, and I hope someone can help me with this. Many internet searches led me to this forum, and some of the discussions have been very informative.

I have plans to renovate and extend a house that was built around 1912, and I'd like to do it all in the style of that period (red tiles, lime rendered, double-hung windows with divided glass on top sash, some coloured glass, etc.).

Can anyone with experience of houses from the period tell me how high window heads were set, and how high were ceilings typically? From looking at photos, the windows appear to be about a foot above the height of the front door, which I guess is 7 feet tall, so that would put the windows about eight feet off the floor, yes?

 

[Stevers]

Mid-Victorian house here with 8'10" ceilings downstairs. In the posher front rooms the window cases reach the ceiling, in the more modest rooms at the back and upstairs the slightly shorter windows top out about 9" from the ceiling. In our basement (8'6" ceiling) we have sash windows where the top of the frames are effectively up in the ceiling. One aspect of design that enhances older properties (that is missing from modern design) is that the windows reduce in size on upper storeys, and are lower in the room. Upstairs (8'7" ceilings) our windows are both shorter and narrower than those below. 8'10" feels like a nice spacious ceiling height for a reasonably posh room, and doesn't feel stupid tall. A larger front room than ours (12' x 15') might need a slightly taller ceiling to maintain proportions though. Our bathroom on the ground floor is just 5' x 6' and still has the full 8'10" ceiling height, so that's a strangely proportioned little room!

To produce a convincing Edwardian feel I think you'd have to start with an interior design from the period that you like and adapt it to fit your space.

 

[Liam]

Thanks. I've noticed that about the different heights. I've planned for 9-foot ceilings, so ceiling height should be alright.

In an old house the dining room with very tall windows would be separate from the kitchen with its more modest windows. In a modern house we generally have a kitchen and dining area together, often at opposite ends of the same room, so it's hard to find a balance between the two areas. I've seen houses with different head heights in the same room, and the garden-facing windows are taller, so that's an option, though it can look a bit off when both window heights are seen together.



I was trying to keep window heads below picture rail height, but I've seen houses with windows that cut up through the rail, and they don't necessarily look wrong.

 

[Stevers]

Not only are all our (sash) window heads above the picture rail, but most have plastered splays (thick stone walls), and the picture rails are neatly returned into them. The splays are outlined with staff beads with grooves each side to accept wallpaper and I paint these to match the rest of the joinery in the room including the picture rails. My sister's house is Edwardian, has casement windows so none of this applies of course - and that sounds more the style you're looking for.

A bigger problem (as with our kitchen that was once a bedroom) is the height of the bottom of any sash window as it will be below worktop, if it doesn't have its head in the ceiling as in our basement where our kitchen used to be.

 

[Liam]

I had considered casement windows originally, but decided upon sashes because the existing portion of the house had them before they were changed to unattractive top-hung casements, and I prefer the depth of the sash box. I could use casements and stretch everything out horizontally, Arts & Crafts style, but that's not really what I'm aiming for.

Having thought about it for a while now, I think I'll go with the taller setup all round, which is almost 8' above floor level. That will break through the picture rail, but leave about 13" for window architrave and cornice. I might also make the top sashes smaller. I want to avoid meeting rails that are at eye level.

The original house has splayed window reveals in stone, and the new section as planned will have the same (though not in stone) to allow for shutters.

Sill heights for the kitchen won't be a problem, as this will be part of the new section.

Just for reference, the types of houses I have in mind are these, though not exactly on this scale:

 

[Stevers]

Both lovely (and ever so stylish), and with those windows, to some extent what the Edwardians strangely termed 'Queen Anne'. You have excellent taste - as in I like them too! That second one will have the top of sashes well above picture rail, and possibly wasn't built all in one go. I like a bit of drop on my ceilings, but not when there's an expanse of it above the windows - that's a bit cottagey/arts and crafts/1930s semi.

 

[Liam]

I've set the windows to 8', and this is the difference it makes:


One final thing to note: As far as I can tell, when the top sash is smaller than the bottom, it's about 40% of the window height. If the sashes were made equal then the meeting rails would be at my eye level, so this is a practical decision as well as a design choice.


The only thing left to decide is whether to have squares in the top sash or golden ratio rectangles:

 

[Stevers]

A slightly higher meeting rail to make the six panes golden rectangles? A practical consideration is slightly less joinery and subsequent painting that way...

 

[Liam]

I'm just thinking about the top sash in this example being 27" wide and 21" tall. Subdividing into 4 columns and 2 rows makes for tall rectangles. Subdividing into 4 columns and 3 rows makes for squares (roughly).



Rectangles, I think...

Squares can work, but only when there are lots of them: