Stained Glass Windows Old Fashioned?

Prairie Style Stained Glass Kitchen

Last week one of our clients cancelled an order for stained glass because an interior designer friend said that she thought stained glass windows were old fashioned. While we do concede that the installation stained glass is a centuries old tradition primarily associated with European chuches, we adamantly believe that stained glass is not an “old fashioned” accessory, but rather a beautiful and functional accent that can be used in both traditional and modern homes.

Adding stained glass to your home is a beautiful way to introduce custom artwork to your home, increase your home’s resale value, and introduce your own stamp onto your home for decades or centuries to come.

Traditional Stained Glass Windows

In traditional homes stained glass windows are often designed to match the style in which the house was built. Craftsman style homes include often look best with Prairie Style stained glass. Victorian homes generally match up well with Art Nouveau, Tiffany, or Greene & Greene glass. While Scottish Stained Glass often repairs or restores stained glass windows in older homes by merely removing and re-leading, we often urge our clients to add a new, modern window on which our stained glass will be overlaid. This allows the stained glass windows to achieve a much greater degree of energy efficiency, last much, much longer, and and be maintained without difficult cleaning.

Modern Stained Glass Windows

In more modern homes often traditional colored glass is not the ideal choice to add to the home. Rather for many newer homes, we recommend stained glass windows that have only beveled and leaded clear glass. This clear, textured glass provides privacy and elegance to a home, without connection to a home’s interior design elements to any particular color scheme. This clear glass allows the windows to exist neutral to any design or color changes home owners or home buyers might want to make in the future.

Artistic Stained Glass Windows

Stained Glass windows can also be used as an opportunity to add art or interpretive imagery to a home. These types of stained glass and be abstract or realistic, painted or leaded, and can included beveled or textured glass. Often these artistic windows make dramatic additions to entryways, transoms, bathrooms, or kitchens. Our most interesting projects, these artistic stained glass windows often take longer to design, but often get the greatest reaction for our clients and their guests.

So if anyone ever suggests that stained glass is “old fashioned”, send them to this page and see what what beautiful and modern pieces we can build!

Stained Glass Windows on “This Old House”