Divided Light Decisions

It amazes me how ignorant we can be of our surroundings. I thought I paid attention to the details in my own home, until I had to order new windows (58 in total for my house). I knew what I wanted, or so I thought.
1.) Divided lights not the fake ones between the glass, but dividers that had depth created shadows.
2.) Wood windows with an extruded aluminun cover on the outside and primed wood on the inside.
3.) No unattractive exposed drywall, instead wood casings connecting groups of windows
4.) Casement windows on the part of the house with cement board and double hung everywhere else
5.) Wood french doors on the L shaped front porch
6.) White windows

Done deal piece of cake. Then I started paying attention to the window grills in magazines and high end neighborhoods. Guess what, the number of divided lights was way less than my current windows and they were painted the same color as the trim not white.

Less is more with divided lights.



Traditional Home July/August 2011

Traditional Home July/August 2011

Selecting the number of divided lights per window was a daunting task. I currently have 29 different sizes of divided lights on my 58 windows. Who knew? 

In the family room alone, a total of 10 windows and one door I have the following:  9.5 wide x 12 tall, 9.5 wide x 13.5 tall, 10.25 wide x 12 tall, 10.25 wide x 13.5 tall,6 wide x 12.5 tall (door), and 11 wide x 12 tall, and 11 wide x 13.5 tall.

The reverse cottage double hung windows. (Translates to a window that the operable bottom section is not as tall as the upper section) Why are my windows not equally divided in half, you ask? Building code limits the number of square feet of glass that can be in one section without being tempered.

The easiest way to show you how the number of divided lights affects a space is with pictures.

Open Oversized Traditional

House and Home

Horizontal Divided Lights

House and Home

Simply Split

House and Home

Mix and Match

House and Home




Oversized in Black

House and Home



Martha Style Traditional



House and Home


Four by Four

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House and Home

Sophisticated

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Dated Squished

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Once my new windows are in and trimmed out, I will be viewing my bluestone surrounded pool

not through a cage like grid but an open and sophisticated frame.

Love,

Melinda

Goodbye Garage Hello Living

I usually know what I want to do to a space immediately. A picture pops into my head, and then I work backwards creating the details. Once the volume of the space is determined, the hard surfaces selected I get to the fun part. Choosing unique personal pieces and uncovering great scores that are totally unexpected to fill in the gaps.

The garage remodel at the lake house, has been a challenge for me. I can easily visualize the volume of the interior space but not how it impacts the exterior. Specifically, not how different designs impacted the roof lines and their intersections.

A friend, suggested I make folded paper roof models. Thanks Jennifer. Who knew, that by folding copy paper in half and taping it on top of other pieces of folded paper for the walls I could build my house.

A sneak peek at pieces for my vision.

The garage soon to be a second living area, will be flooded with natural light. The front and back walls are french doors end to end. The third wall will have floor to ceiling windows surrounded by built-ins. I want to bring all that natural light into the rest of my home....so down goes another 12 foot section of wall including two closets separating the kitchen from the garage. And in its place a 12' wide x 10' tall sliding barn door.

Building off the large diagonal Italian tile with its greyish tones in the kitchen and other parts of the house
will be a weathered oak, large scale herringbone wood floor. David wants to lay the floor....ssshhh don't tell him about the chevron pattern. I love the bold pattern it makes on the floor.

The french doors will extend from wall to wall nearly 22 running feet of glass on either end of the room. They will have simple horizontal divided lights. I now know more about divided light options in windows than I ever did before, I will blog about the hours spent determining divided light sizes for my other home later. The set of six doors featured in this photo fold up and stack at the ends, not sure these will fit in my budget but they are so cool.

Exposed ceiling beams  painted glossy white with a fabulous chandelier or maybe two different chandeliers.

A pool table in navy lacquer like this chest....

Or possibly white lacquer with navy felt. Anyone out there have an old pool table they want to sell cheap?

A clean lined white slipcovered sectional, with lots of room for boys. Pop it in the wash with a little bleach and it is good as new.

Several old fashioned sailors hammocks hung from the exposed rafters will be stored in the built-ins when not in use. Covered either in white denim or possibly if I feel daring this fabulous Thomas Paul fabric in ink.

Tons of other details are left but the core pieces and layout are sketched and estimates are started. One year late but sometimes life gets in the way. Just wait till you see the new carport concept  it is beautiful. Two words I never thought would be in the same sentence carport and beautiful...

Love
Melinda

Bubble Chandelier

The perfect chandelier traditional but modern.

The clear bubble crystals and the nickel frame

if only I could find where to buy it....

Lonny Jennifer Dyer

Lonny Jennifer Dyer

Lonny Jennifer Dyer