Idea for decorating those awkward foyer and staircase windows

Those high windows above staircases or above entry doors in a foyer may let in a lot of light, but they can pose a decorating dilemma. They look bare on their own, yet are not candidates for traditional window treatments such as blinds, curtains or drapes.

I had exactly that problem. I have an odd window. It is 12 feet above the staircase turn landing between my first and second floor and it is a double-hung window. It was there before we bought the house; windows were in and framing was done, that's about it. So we couldn't do much about the window and frankly, truth be told, we missed it amid all the other decisions we had to make.

So, now we have this enormous double-hung window 12 feet above our stair landing and we didn't know what to do with it. We were stumped. We'd never open this window. To put some kind of window treatment on it seemed odd. Moreover, fabrics, blinds or even shades would get dusty and dirty there and I didn't want to clean them and watch the cobwebs grow.

Our home is done in the American Bungalow style, which was prevalent from the 1890s to the 1930s and 1940s, so it was was built then, chances are it would have included some stained glass windows. Because we love stained glass anyway, this became an easy decision.

We went to Sheri Law Art Glass in Homer Glen, Ill. We were already using Sheri to create some privacy in our master bathroom window (see that story and how it turned out here). We presented our dilemma and showed her photos of her our home so she could get a feel for our style and the color palette. She paid particular attention to our wall color, the colors in the stained glass fixture already hanging in the staircase and even wanted photos of our carpet. 

From there, she created some sketches and we chose one we especially liked. Then, came the fun part. We sat down at a table in her office and got to select colors from an enormous collection of stained glass in all shades and opacities. 

Here is a photo of the sketch we approved after selecting colors and finalizing the drawing.

A few weeks later, the windows were ready to be installed. They are installed right over your existing windows, so if you ever needed or wanted to remove them, you could.

Below, windows are installed over the existing lower double-hung windows.

Next, eight separate pieces of the design are installed in the upper portion of the double-hung windows.

When it is completed, the result is everything we hoped it. It really finishes off the window perfectly and still keeps with the style of the house.

Do you have one of those strange windows? Let me know and tell us how you dealt with it.

How to get privacy in a bathroom window

Do you have a window that is hard to reach or one where you crave privacy above all else? I'm talking about those round, half-circle or octagonal windows in a tall foyer or those windows that are in your bathroom or above your soaker tub?

It can be hard to figure out what to do with these windows. Do you put window treatments on them? Nah, seems strange to do that in a foyer when you can't even reach the window. And what about that bathroom dilemma? Do you install blinds or shades on the window and keep them closed 80% of the time?

I've discovered what I think is a better solution and it's a solution I used in my own home.

First off, my master bathroom. It has a large window on the wall behind the vanity and while it is about four feet off the ground, you can't help but feel like you need more privacy. I love stained glass, so we hung a piece of art glass in the window. Unfortunately, it left plenty of viewing area around the sides, so it didn't give the privacy we desired.

Since we love art glass, we decided to have to Sheri Law Art Glass Ltd. design something simple for the lower half of the window only. Sheri Law doesn't specialize in just beveled and traditional stained glass, although she does great work with them, but she creates all kinds of glasswork, including antiques mirrors, carved and etched glass, glass for entryways, transoms, backsplashes, bar mirrors and more.

We had an idea of what we wanted before we even visited her showroom in Homer Glen, Illinois. We wanted to create a diamond pattern with beveled glass that would match the transoms in the kitchen of our house.

Sheri gave us what we asked for and took it one step further. She found a diamond shaped beveled glass with a pattern that gave us the privacy we wouldn't have gotten from clear beveled glass alone.

Her design was ready a few weeks after our initial consultation and it was installed over, yes over, our existing windows in about a hour. It is portable art; if we ever sell the house, we can remove the beveled glass and take it with us. Alternatively, if someone buys our home and doesn't care of the glass, they can remove it and revert back to the original window.

We loved how it turned out and we're so happy we didn't have to resort to a shade or blinds. This way, we can let the sunlight in all day and look at the glass sparkle when the lights are on at night.

In my next post, I'll show you what we decided to do in the staircase.

For more information about Sheri Law Art Glass, visit her website here to look at examples of her work.