Stained Glass Window Panels for Decorating Your Room

If you want to dramatically alter the look of a room, or the impression of a house, consider stained glass window panels.

Stained glass panels come in 3 basic types- lead channel, foil, and faux. Faux window panels are usually painted glass with fake foiling, giving the impression of stained glass without the expense. These are designed to be hung inside an existing window, where they are protected from the elements.

Lead channel window panels are the original form of stained glass. Working and soldering the channel is labor intensive and the designs tend to be simpler executions because of the weight and labor involved. 

Foiled panels are able to use much smaller pieces and can even use 3D techniques, with flowers or birds lifting from the purely vertical, into the room they occupy. The glass pieces are cut, ground smooth, the edges encased in copper foil, the pieces are fitted together, and after a flux solution is applied so it will adhere, solder is melted over the foils and joins the pieces of glass together.

Because the pieces of glass used are smaller, more intricate detailing can be made. This also makes the stained glass window panel stronger. In fact, many cities will allow the use of foiled panels in doors and sidelights without the need for safety glass.

As stained glass panels have gained in popularity, so has the ease with which you can acquire them, with several dozen designs being mass produced and available through home improvement outlets or interior design stores. There are hundreds of designs available to be made by artisans working in the stained glass field. And, depending on your budget; they can make a window panel of practically anything you wish. If it can be drawn, they can build it.

Color, texture and opacity are also aspects of your design to consider. Glass can have colors as clear as Jello, or swirls, or only register a change in brightness, but not what's beyond the glass. It can be poured into molds so one side looks like pebbles or bubbles. It can have a metallic or crystalline sheen.

Shape can also be part of your window panel design- rectangular, arched, polyhedral, trapezoid, parallelogram; whatever the shape of your window, the window panel can be designed to fill it. [You could even have one shaped like a Christmas tree, but your builder would probably have a fit.]

Antique Stained Glass

One of the most beautiful additions you could make to your period home is with antique stained glass. Although beautiful stained glass pieces are commonly found in churches and other religious buildings, antique stain glass and leaded glass is also commonly found in vintage homes. Antique stained glass may be used in windows or skylights, and panels of it can be hung as a decorative element from windows or used in and around doors.

Antique stained glass panels are made of small-cut pieces of colored glass that are held together by lead strips and supported in a frame. The glass is carefully arranged to form unique and intricate patterns. Leaded glass uses lead instead of the traditional calcium in its composition, and the result is a very brilliant glass that reflects light very well. Leaded glass is what certain types of crystal is made from.

Antique stained glass windows come in a variety of shapes and sizes. Square and rectangular shapes are common, but stained glass pieces are also available in round and oval shapes as well. Antique stained glass panels may be used to adorn the upper portion of ribbon windows, which are often featured in Prairie, Craftsman and Modernistic-style homes. Antique leaded stained glass was also popular in use with Victorian-era architecture, including the Queen Anne style. In this type of home the glass might be featured in smaller panes surrounding a large pane of glass, or a patterned piece could be placed over a blank lower pane of glass.

Antique doors featuring panels in them, or sidelights around the main door could also be useful as an accent spot for some lovely antique stained glass panels. As you can imagine, stained glass from a vintage era is fairly rare because of its delicate nature, but pieces are available today for use in period homes.

The designs found in antique leaded stained glass pieces are as varied as the artists who made them. You might find beautiful geometric patterns, or floral garden motifs. Diamond-shapes are also used. A pattern might feature a coat of arms, or other symbol significant to its country of origin or period of time. Animals are often depicted in antique stain glass. The colors of glass available are wide ranging; you will experience brilliant reds and golds, vibrant greens and blues, all typically outlined carefully in black or dark-colored edging to make the piece as a whole read as the final complete design.

One of the best ways to experience the range of antique stained glass currently available is to look at online antique salvage stained glass merchants' websites, which usually feature color images of the pieces for sale.