When we remodeled the kitchen in our 1950s bungalow, part of making the floor plan work was eliminating a window on the front of the house. Not an ideal solution from a curb-appeal standpoint but there truly was no other option. How to (at least somewhat) retain the symmetry on the house’s face? Enter faux stained glass! My husband filled in the existing window with insulation, a white-painted plywood board, and some brickmould, added a faux windowbox and I turned a picture frame’s glass into “stained” glass.
I was inspired by a simple stained glass window that my aunt had and I tweaked the design for my size requirements. It really was a simple process, I mixed some black paint into Elmer’s glue and drew the leaded lines out with the glass laid over a template. Once the lines were fully dry, I filled in the colored areas with acrylic paint. We affixed the glass to the inside of the frame with silicone so that it was watertight. My husband held the frame in place with a few artfully angled nails and sealed around the top and sides with silicone but left the bottom open so that any errant moisture had a way to escape.
I think the end result was charming, and definitely more appealing than blank siding would have been – hooray for creative solutions!
