Simulated divided light to me always looks better than internal grilles.

Older windows had thinner muntins. I'd stick to the 1" for a traditional look.

I would never do grids between the glass IF you're doing a classic style house. It looks like what it is...fake. Here are my windows. I did SDLs the way millworkman suggests.

I absolutely love the SDL and I am using them on the house we are building right now. But only because I have very few of them on my windows. If I or dh had to contend with washing our windows with lots and lots of SDLs...I would not have chosen them. Washing between all of those tiny panes of glass would drive me batty. And I love clean windows.

As a matter of fact in our last house I had tons of large dh windows and I chose the grills between the glass on both the upper and lower sashes. I did upgrade the grills from 3/4" to 1" which I think made them less fake looking. Did they look as good as the SDL? No...but they were a breeze to clean.

Tried to find a pic of windows in my old house without people in the pic..this was the best I could do. I don't think these grills look so bad.

Have you priced the sdl's yet? They can get pricey.

Love the SDL however used them only on all our french doors.

+1 to several of the previous comments.

1. They will get expensive, but nothing out there really satisfies the look if the look you are going for is for the internal occupant of the home.

2. You must do the SDL on both sides with the internal grid as well for the proper and more authentic look.

3. If you are concerned about the aesthetic from the street, SDLs are a hard sell. Most folks can't tell the difference from about 10' so the SDLs are most often times used in the case of historic applications as well as occupant preferences (i.e. what they want to look at).

Perhaps I misunderstood; pic of our master's french door leading to the deck; deck of course is not planked yet.

Those are not SDL's pine baron.

For the look you want, SDLs are the only answer.

cpartist

Those are not SDL's pine baron.

I guess these are not simulated divided lites but divided lites, what do I know :)

cpartist, how can you tell they are not SDL's?

The mullions seem to be almost flush with the glass and a slightly lighter color. An SDL typically has a raised grille on the exterior that's the same color as the sash, a grille in the airspace between the glass and a grille on the interior.

Trust me Carolina, I know wht SDL's are and they do make a flat SDL bar. I have seen and sold many very similar to that exact bar. As a matter of fact that particular spacer bar would be 2 pcs seperated to look like it was the full width of the interior and exterior muntin.

Then I must not be getting a good representation of it on my monitor (or it could be my old eyes) ;)

I am not guranteeing it is an SDL, I just was curious how cpartist said it definitely was not.

I was assuming it was the same as Carolina said. I need better glasses too. LOL

SDL’s are always going to give you the most traditional look it just comes down to pricing. Depending on the window manufacturer you are considering you could get exterior grille applied and interior removeable for easier cleaning. I personally like the wider grilles unless you are looking at a busier grille pattern. If you decide to go 1-1/4” you can opt to skip the spacer bar because seeing the spacer bar in between with the wider grille is tough unless you are right up next to the unit. We went with removable 1-1/4” grilles with the Andersen windows we purchased because it fit better into our budget. The nice part of Andersen is that you don’t spend anymore for a 1-1/4” grille than you would for 3/4”or 1”.

We went with the 1 3/8” SDL. The thinner looked too skimpy on our large windows and our house sits way off the road and I wanted it to be somewhat visible.

While they do cost money, even my builder remarked that it's actually an excellent place to spend a little. They add a solidity to the look of the house. And, to quote him, "Nothing makes a house feel cozier when you're inside it, either."

(noting that mine is in the same school as a lot of the architects. He's not fond of "peel and stick" architectural features. And if you opt for shutters, he'll recommend at least putting up dogs and hinges that make them LOOK operational.)

I like SDL for authenticity.

And I agree that the door(looks like a ThermaTru) in Pinebaron's pic is most likely flat SDLs, it's cheaper to do that than separate IGUs.