the shutters are usually made out of powder coated aluminium so check with the local specialist paint store for suitable paint and there's very detailed information online for painting powder coated aluminium (same as painting aluminium windows) tedious, time consuming but well worth the effort for a fresh new look and it could also be worthwhile to contact the shutter suppliers eg EZYFIT shutters who sell through Bunnings to ask if they have any service or advice that could help

Hi Emma, in response to your two questions 1) You can paint aluminium window frames with the right preparation, however, it gets tricky where the windows open and are in contact with another part of the frame. Your windows look like they are sliding windows, so they will be hard to paint, where they slide in the track. Even if you can paint all of the window frames the new paint is likely to chip where it slides. Being old aluminium frame windows they will be very poor at controlling heat loss and gain (as the window frame conducts the heat) so I would suggest that you save your dollars and replace them with something more energy-efficient. Many windows are made to standard sizes based on brick opening dimensions so keep an eye out for new/old stock, and wrongly ordered window sizes that are for sale on eBay and Gumtree to match your window opening sizes. 2) Your sill bricks are probably cored (with holes running through them) or have recessed "frogs" on the top face. These holes or recesses are concealed in the way that they are laid. If you slice your sill brick diagonally to flatten out the front in line with the wall then they will be exposed and look really bad. There are lots of other more cost-effective ways to work with what you have and improve the look of your home. Best of luck, Dr Retro of Dr Retro House Calls/Dr Retro Virtual Visits

So I’m probably going to start spraying my windows white and I am wondering if I can spray straight over these black strips? Or do I need to remove and replace them. Its an 80s build. Thanks!

Just as a tip, those dark colours in your light brick arent' grey, they are a deep purple/brown also known as Burnt Umber. The midtone colour in that brick is also a purple brown in a natural mineral, in artists land that colour is called Indian Red, other similar hues are perylene maroon and piemontite. I'm an artist so very used to seeing different colours and their undertones. Colours that will go with that will be blacks that are actually red or purple based. So NOT monument which is a blue based charcoal. Blacks come in many different tones and it's important to match the undertone to your brick for colour harmony. Blacks which are complementary or blue based will stand out more but may not go as well. Which is why the grey blind seems uninspiring, it's a blue based grey. I'll name some colours in the Taubmans brand. I didn't pick Dulux because it has an abyssmal colour selection atm. Phantom Myst and Fable would both be good blacks to use on your home. Ruby Rose and Redwood and Russet stone would all go with the brick colours. Unless you train your eye to see hues and undertones it's very difficult to spot them which is why a colour consultants have a job. If you're interested learning colour mixing is fascinating there are even hues like red-blues which sounds paradoxical but ultramarine is actually a red based blue' A hack for creating colour palettes super easy. If you have Photoshop you can show it a photo and it will automatically create a perfectly co-ordinated colour palette for you of 6 or so colours which are exact matches to the colours in the photos. Any photo at all, and it will spit out pantone colour codes for you that you can take to paint shop and have them mix up. It picks up some dark, mid and light tones and you can have it create monochromatic, complementary, split coplementary etc palettes that work beautifully.