New Home - New Gallery Glass Windows

There is nothing quite as exciting as moving the family to a new city. Recently, my daughter, Renee, graduated from Medical School and was chosen to do her residency at the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta. We are thrilled with the appointment, but it meant relocating to the new city which is 2 and 1/2 hrs. away from Atlanta. It isn't a long distance, but definitely far enough away for a moving van (actually took 6 trips). We kept thinking we were done, but then another van load of stuff would materialize. It was a busy and eventful 2 months which coincided with her graduation and the end of school and the "Dance" year for my granddaughters.
One of the first things Renee did after closing on the house was to email me the sizes of her windows. The house featured tiny little windows above each of the large window groups on the ground floor, and Gallery Glass was a logical solution to prevent glare where they would not be covered by curtains. We argued about the pattern for several days. I wanted to do something Art Nouveau, but my daughter felt that something more Art Deco would give the home a contemporary feel.

Finally, we agreed on this design. She thought it was perfect because it had the look that she wanted for their home. I could see that it was adaptable to all the places she wanted to put it, since it would look equally as well horizontal or vertical. And it was a pattern that could easily fit every size because the transom came in 3 sizes, the sidelights and transom was a different size and the kitchen and bathrooms were different, again. This design simply started with an "X" across the corners, and the perpendicular lines were drawn in proportionately. Perfect. Then we debated a lot about the spacial relationship of the frost and Crystal Clear. We needed a third texture, so Renee suggested "stripes" made with the Crystal Clear. It was the perfect companion to the Clear and Frost and the Ribbon of stripes flows through adjoining panes tying them all together as if they were part of ONE design, rather than dozens of separate designs.
Of course, I insisted that we not put color into play because I have a strong aversion to color on the front of the house. I think it can draw too much attention, especially at night, and it limits the use of interior furnishings and accessories that can be used in the various rooms. It's hard to pull off color successfully, especially when the same design is used across the front of the house.

 
 The front door has glass all the way around and opens into a small entry hall. Because the sidelights had real mullions (dividers) and the transom had faux mullions --bars between the 2 panes of glass, I opted to do all three of the areas on a long piece of plexiglas, instead of individual pieces. It was faster and easier, but it also allowed all three windows to match, stylewise. The transom rests against the glass, but the sidelights rest against the mullions - about a half inch from the glass, but from the outside, you really don't notice.

Our next project was the back door. It looks out from the mud room onto a deck that is higher than the street, so it is going to be highly visible, even over the fence, and especially at night.. Because the mud room has a tropical Palm Tree theme, we chose the contemporary "Leaves" design for the tall skinny window in the door. The mullions are real, but a routed groove around the outside allowed me to do the design on one piece of 1/8" plexiglas. This works well because it is a door that will get a lot of traffic, so the single panel will be more durable. 12 panes would be hard to keep in place with the family passing in and out every day. We chose to add some color to the design because it is the only window on the back of the house and can be a little more whimsical. We used Champagne for the background around the edge and also added Clear Shimmer to some of the leaves for a bit of glitz when the sun hits the design.  

Now for the transoms in the living area. The design worked well because the transoms were 4 different sizes. But as you look at the finished panels, they all look like the same design.

We also did the transoms above the dining area window and the doorways into the back hallway. The window over the sink was another "must have" because the window looks right out into the side of the neighbor's house. Notice that the design looks just as well "stacked"-as it does arranged in a line.

In case you think we were done, you'd be wrong. I took the same concept to the master bedroom on the main floor and the master bath. There are little windows in the shower and another 4 pane over the tub. I did the ones over the shower areas, both upstairs and down, but have yet to create a design for the large window over the tub. I'm thinking that we will do a little more with that design because it's big--there are 4, 21" square panels to work with. It's an opportunity for something interesting--maybe even some color. Stay tuned! I'll update this article when we finish.