Stained Glass Panels for Windows and Doors

Add instant Old World Charm to your home when you put stained glass in a window or door.

There is nothing more beautiful on the planet than sunshine filtering through stained glass. That's why so many of us love to put a stained glass sun catcher in a window. Well, if you love sun catchers, you might just want to kick up your decorating a notch, and install a stained glass panel or two in some of your windows or doors. If it's in your budget you can certainly hire a professional glass blower to create unique stained glass panels for your windows and doors. But if you're like me and can't quite swing that, then you can hunt thrift shops and flea markets looking for used ones. I have to admit that I also haunt ebay looking for unique home accessories.

My husband and I are currently renovating an 18th Century farmhouse that was built by a sea captain. Even though he was retired the good old captain seemed to miss his portholes. We have many round windows, all different sizes that were added in a whimsical nature throughout the house. It seems if he was walking down a flight of stairs or using the bathroom and wondered what was going on outside, he cut a round window out.

This is the first place that I've added some stained glass panels for windows. I thought it was best to start out small and see what I felt about the light and patterns. Well I just love the way the stained glass perks up a space - especially stairwells. I sort of understand where the Captain was coming from now.

Round Stained Glass Panels for Windows

The trick with stained glass panels is to decide how much you want and where it looks best in your home. I've decided to use it as accents in nooks and corners. While I love the way the sun plays on the walls, I'm not sure that I want it playing all over the home accessories, figurines, and patterned pillows that I seem to be accumulating. That goes for some of the tiled floors in the bathrooms. So I have to restrain myself - which is something that I'm not very good at most of the time!

The biggest decision we had to make when we started rehabbing our house was whether we would keep the original floor plan with many small rooms or open it up. Realtors told us that the resale value would be better if we created a more modern floor plan. Well we aren't rehabbing it to flip it, so we decided that we wanted to keep the smallish rooms. That way if someone wants to read, while someone else is watching television or gabbing with her sisters, it's just easier on everyone.

But that left us with lots of doors. In the winter we actually keep the doors shut to conserve fuel in our cold Maine climate. But that creates dark spaces and hallways. We've started adding stained glass panels in these doors. This is probably my favorite place to add glass. It's easier than windows because we can cut the hole to accommodate the panel. But mostly we've tried to keep the door panels the same size. For us that has turned out to be 13 inches by 22 inches. We don't want the panels to go all the way to the floor. That also seems to be a common size so we can find more as we need them.

Stained Glass Window Panels 13" x 22"

There is no way that you're going to find matching stained glass panels for all of your windows, unless you are really lucky or can afford to have them custom made. So you have to decide how to coordinate them. I actually have themes. In some parts of the house I have birds or flowers. In other parts of the house I try to stick to a color theme. It depends on the space.

Click Here to see all the stained glass window panels now selling on ebay.