Stained Glass Partition

A few years ago, my brother’s adult daughter lost her job and had to move in with him for a while to make ends meet. My brother and his wife had plenty of space in their house, but they didn’t have a regular bedroom available for her.  My brother decided to convert the rarely-used formal dining room into a bedroom.  It was easy enough to build a temporary well with a door around the dining room.  There was just one problem: the kitchen had an access window cutout into the dining room.  Hanging curtains wouldn’t provide enough privacy and would clash with the kitchen design.  In order to solve the problem, my brother’s wife suggested stained glass.

At first I thought the idea was crazy.  To me, stained glass was old-fashioned and would make their house look like a church.  But then she started showing me some ideas she had found online and in magazines.  I was surprised to see that stained glass could build on a rustic, elegant or even modern aesthetic.   When my sister-in-law had settled on a design, they took it to a decorative glass professional.  He created the colored glass pane and they installed it as a window, so that when the daughter moved out, the kitchen could be connected to the dining room once more. 

My brother´s daughter was extremely happy and grateful for the privacy provided by the installation of the decorative window.  She ended up finding a new job and leaving the house after about six months, but the family still has the stained glass window, which they consider to be an outstanding home improvement.  They are always receiving compliments about how unique and colorful their kitchen looks.  And now, who knows?  I might even be inspired to add a touch of stained glass to my home.

The Crack on my Shower Door

How’s this for a rude wake-up call – your alarm goes off and you head to the bathroom to start your daily routine. You’re about to walk into the shower and see that your beautiful, glass shower door has a crack no bigger than your pinky, yet to you it seems bigger than your hand.

Now you find yourself with a big issue at hand – whether to risk and open the tempered glass or shower in another bathroom.  Now I know this decision might come easy to most, but what happens if you do decide to open the glass shower door and all of a sudden everything collapses? The only good thing about this type of situation is that you might get a little something called “shower inspiration” – upgrade what you had into something fancier, more reliable and longer lasting.

For example, I was able to get a new shower door and at the moment, I can’t complain and I truly believe that I made a better decision this time around.  Yet for the other 2 bathrooms I've decided to go with frameless shower doors, just to give a bit of a more stylish look.  After all, wouldn't you want to impress your family and guests and receive compliments?

At the end of the day, all of you want is to jump into your beautiful shower and have a quiet moment – and you really can’t have that with cracked glass doors!

How to Make a Faux Window

If you want to make a room look bigger, there are a few things you can do. I chose to make a faux window using a wooden frame I got a local store. Then I went to a glass company to add mirror panes to fit the frame. While I had already seen this idea on the internet a couple of times I was afraid it wouldn’t work out as nicely as it did for other people but I decided to put all fears aside and went through with it!   

           

When my frame was ready and the mirrors had been added to it, I hung it on the wall. My living room did look a little bigger and it also helped with the lighting. Before I hung the faux window the room was very dark because it did not have enough windows and even though this was not an actual window it did brighten up the room. Don’t ask me how, but it did.

After a few days I decided I wanted to do something extra. I thought it would be great if I could paint on my faux window and make it even more decorative. I am not an expert at painting so I went for something simple: just a small tree and some flowers. I accept it doesn’t really look professional or anything but I like it. In addition, it’s something unique that nobody else has so I can say that I am truly happy with the results!