Stained Glass Windows Add Artistic Flair to Your Home

By Jennifer Akre

Stained glass windows add grace and beauty to any room in your house. Versatile and illuminating, these artistic creations enhance the value and enjoyment of your home in a variety of applications, both interior and exterior.

Dating back a thousand years, stained glass windows, also known as art glass, were most commonly utilized in religious buildings and historical structures, with intricate works depicting Biblical events or significant events in history. Famous structures with stained glass windows include the Canterbury and Gloucester Cathedrals in Great Britain, Notre Dame in Paris, and the Lady Chapel of St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City. Recently, a German-designed set of stained glass windows denoting the 800-year anniversary of Reims Cathedral in France was unveiled to great fanfare and admiration.

While you could travel thousands of miles to enjoy these masterpieces, it is easier than you think to display stained glass windows in your own home. Online shopping makes it easy to view these pieces; photographs are displayed in high resolution, with dozens of options displayed on each page. No retail store can offer the myriad of choices offered by shopping in the comfort of your home.

What is stained glass anyway? The artistry of colored glass surrounded by lead and copper foil results in masterful glasswork that is undeniably unique and exquisite. These alluring pieces are created by adding metallic salts during the manufacture of the glass to create beautiful and intense colors. A good example of this is displayed in Tiffany lamps, which have become very popular over the years for their incredible lighting effects.

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In your home or workplace, you may choose stained glass windows to match, complement or contrast paint colors, flooring, carpets and other pieces of art that you already own. If the room your piece will adorn is small, you may wish to create a design where the window is the focal point, accenting the space with colors contained in the stained glass to play off the reflective light it creates.

A popular use of stained glass windows is to install them as sidelights in your front door. In addition to privacy, they add an impressive flourish to your entryway. This installation can also add flair to an office space where confidentiality and solitude are desired.

Insulation can be a concern with nontraditional window panels, and certainly, many consumers ask about how stained glass window panels fit into this mix. Glass in the millennium has been manufactured with greater heating and cooling efficiency, and thermal frames add to the insulating ability of the stained glass windows. To maintain safety, tempered glass is often used. This process of manufacturing this glass provides more safety because of the heating/cooling process applied in its creation. When broken, tempered glass shatters into a million different blunt pieces, protecting your home and family. This economical alternative also meets safety-glazing regulations.

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It is commonly accepted that all window frames are not perfectly plumb - somewhat of an optical illusion, to be sure. When measuring a traditional rectangular or square or rectangular window, take several measurements at different areas of the frame to ensure uniformity.

These windows will fit into the décor of any home or work place. Timeless in their design, with thousands of options for detailing in the patterns and pictures depicted in each piece, they are a fantastic choice to adorn any area. Stained glass never goes out of style, and many pieces actually increase in value as objects d'art. Custom designs are also available to ensure your satisfaction in creating a piece that will delight your family, your friends, and your customers for many years to come.

Author Jennifer Akre is an owner of a wide variety of online specialty shops including that offer both items and information on how you can easily furnish and decorate your space. Whether it is fireplace screens for your living room or stained glass windows for you newly remodeled home, there are many tips you can use to make any spot both functional and beautiful. Click today and indulge your senses.

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Put the Personal Touch on Your Interior Decor With Window Treatment Options That Are Sure to Please

By Penny Q Jones

Hunter Douglas

When it comes to selecting window treatments for your home, the choices abound. So before you head out to the store or go online to shop, take a minute to look over each of your rooms and ask yourself some preliminary questions. Are you looking for light management? Is privacy control an issue? Do you prefer wood finishes or fabric? Once you've established this initial set of priorities, you'll be much better equipped to cope with the overload of options and pick the perfect window coverings for every room in your house.

If beauty is at the top of your window treatment preferences, then decorative custom draperies could be the best choice. Available in a full spectrum of hues and fabrics to match virtually any decor, customized drapes and curtains are a wonderful way to add color and texture throughout your entire home. Whatever your decorating style, from formal or traditional to modern or country, you can count on made-to-order window draperies to help you pull the look together with the timeless beauty of panels, sheers, swags, valances, cornices, and more.

For exceptional window coverage in today's larger homes, no decorative window treatments can compare to modern cellular, sliding, and sheer vertical blinds. Ideal for large-scale openings such as oversized windows or sliding doors, contemporary vertical blinds have come a long way from the limited vinyl choices of the past. Now, with more high-performance cellular and sliding alternatives than ever before, you can enjoy energy efficiency along with excellent light management and privacy control. Sheer vertical blinds also combine the easy operation and versatility of classic vertical blinds, complete with the flowing fabric appearance of sheer drapes. Your local interior decorator or window showroom consultant can help you choose from the wide array of fashion colors and hardware to find the modern vertical blinds that are just right for your home or office setting.

Of course, you don't have to decide on a stand-alone treatment to adorn your home's windows and doors. Many of today's window coverings work beautifully together to give you the ultimate in function and appearance. Why not mix and match custom draperies and valances with horizontal blinds or roman shades? That way you can have all the beauty and color of curtains with the convenient operation and coverage of fabric, vinyl, or even wood shades. Roman shades can feature either light-filtering or blackout material to meet your particular light-blocking needs, and wood horizontal blinds come in a variety of stain colors and finishes to complement any home or decor.

So don't get lost in the maze of today's abundant window covering choices. Clarify what matters most before you start to shop. That way you'll end up with the perfect window treatments to beautify and complete every room.

Penny Jones is a senior Internet marketer for Prospect Genius. She specializes in home improvement issues and affordable lead generation for local businesses.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Penny_Q_Jones