Who would guess...

that these window grilles are merely a simulation of the classic ones.

Trends come and go. That's the nature of the beast. Grilles may or may not be in vogue. If you find that they are not, wait awhile and they'll come back in. Then you can put on your bell-bottom jeans and paint-up your own grillwork and all will be right with the world for the time being.

Standard grille inserts are a real pain. They are known to bulge or warp, and must be removed for glass cleaning. Wooden inserts usually require painting. (Ick!)

Any grille insert makes window cleaning a pain in the butt or the wallet -- or both. If your wallet supports it, and you are installing new glazing, get the imbedded grilling - grilles installed within the glazing.

Don't let an artist get bored around the house -- it only leads to things like this.

This classic look is a stick-on imitation.

I'm an artist. Seeking an alternative to insert grilles and the tedium of their maintanance, I made up my own slick version.

These painted vinyl grilles lay flat and make window washing a breeze.

How conVEEnient!

Until I saw what was happening with my creative efforts...

Over time, the grillwork illusion slip slided away. The vinyl strips shrank. The mitred joints opened up. The illusion blew chunks. The sight of a nice veranda was now good reason for drive-by pukings.

These vinyl strips were applied from the inside.

After a few years... look how ugly they went. No wonder people stopped dropping by... except for the mailman (who doesn't have the time to sort such other things).

Why this stuff shrank so badly is unbeknownst to me. Maybe it just doesn't grab glass all that well, or the the dark [green] colours used on the outside got too hot in sunlight (like hot pavement), or maybe it's just the nature of vinyl and sunlight and glass.

It isn't a fault with the paint coating: this is not a factor, because the paint lies on the other side of the gluey surface and does not come into actual contact with the glass.

Here is an interior strip that I partially pulled off. It demonstrates the difference in how the in-and-out sides were painted and how they appear.

The dark green was a match to the exterior trim work.

Another window application. Visually, this gave the door a secure appearance.

These are done away with now, due to the shrinkage problem. Besides... got a dog, which serves me fine for security.

On the other hand, the grilles never barked or needed walking or brushing.

If you are so inclined to try this out for yourself, see more here on how I created and applied these.