One of the main features of our new 'old style' farm house was lots of windows - we wanted a light filled home. My favourite of all the windows is the large arch topped kitchen window that looks out onto the garden.
This window makes me happy every time I look at it - the light floods into the kitchen in the mornings making for a uplifting start to the day. This window was a custom design ordered from our window company and is worth every extra cent.
Viewed from the outside it actually looks smaller than when viewed from within, guests often pass right beneath it to enter the house, then react like they are surprised to see it when they turn the corner into the kitchen! It's visual impact from within the house is many times that of when viewed from outside the house.
But that isn't the only window I love in this house - inspired by an advert for a kitchen in an old English house magazine, I had a small non opening arched window installed at the side of the kitchen that looks directly out onto the verandah. It also lets in the morning sunlight and further connects the people inside with the outside world, it affords a view along the length of the verandah and on to one of our farm paddocks where you can see the animals grazing from time to time. It also gives me a view of which pet is waiting at the front door to be let with muddy paws! So I can sometimes avoid those messy paw prints all over the floor by laying down a mat or old towel for them to walk across as they enter, or in the case of a extra 'muddyness' a good wipe off outside first!
But back to the windows. I don't know why I love windows so much, but for me having them in the exterior walls of the house wasn't enough. I tend to like the slightly quirky when it comes to houses, and after some online searching I found myself the proud owner of a vintage arched window salvaged from an old house that I picked up on ebay locally.
It was in grimy condition with a lot of old flaking paint and corking, but we restored it and my husband made some minor modification to it so it would fit into our wall. You can see it in the picture below waiting to be installed in the rectangular space made for it just above the opening in the wall for the cavity sliding doors. It works well as it lets light travel through from one room to another, and mimics the arch on the top of our kitchen window at the other end of the room.
But one window in an inside wall isn't quite enough for me! In fact this arched salvaged window was my second interior window.
I had already planned to have a window between the entry and our linen room (yes I said linen room - more on that later). But, my initial idea of a round window for that position wasn't easy to find or make. So I adapted my idea to be a octagonal window instead. My husband then set about making it for me, and since it was to be a fixed window with no need for weather proofing it was at least a little less complicated than it could have been! So says she who didn't have to actually make it.
Here it is with the glass masked for painting and then waiting to be installed.
More to come on how these windows look installed in a future post.
