Gates Reno
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December 5, 2006
New skylight
This was what the old opening directly above the staircase looked like. Whatever used to be in that space was long gone by the time we got here (stained glass I guess? Was that the norm?).
Not wanting to spend much of our budget at this point on something purely decorative, that would never be touched or used, we opted for a plain piece of frosted plexiglass.
I took the pic at night to show the opening in the roof in comparison with the plexiglass - it was placed flush with the rest of the ceiling, as opposed to whatever used to be there which had been much closer to the roof opening and much smaller. Here's one from daytime (hard to get a really sunny one this time of year):
Someday, way far in the future, it would be great if we could replace that with something more interesting. But for now it does the job, and looks pretty cool in its own way.
Comments
Most probably stained glass originally. Nothing wrong with the plexi, but you could have used a colored or patterned glass for not a lot of money. A neighbor of mine just replaced a broken bathroom transom with a pale rose-colored glass, and it looks great. In the same bathroom, she used an old-style privacy glass for an exterior window. Both pieces were new and affordable from a glass shop. Also, at any given time, there are many pieces of reasonable stained glass on eBay. It would be fairly easy to find a nice one and fit it to your opening.
Posted by: anon at December 5, 2006 11:17 AM
Just curious, what was the matter with the one you replaced? It had some nice character to it.
Posted by: Archiefina at December 5, 2006 9:36 PM
We didn't actually remove/replace anything that hadn't been missing already. There's still that pyramid-like structure on the roof that you see in the first picture. But the part below that was missing, so we put the plexiglass about two or three feet below the missing part.
I agree that it has character, but I think the picture cleans it up a lot - in real life it looked really dilapidated. And if there was originally stained glass under it, then it was never meant to be seen anyway.
Posted by: Amy at December 5, 2006 10:45 PM
You may consider putting a couple of lights above the plexi, they'd give a great mood on dull nights (or days). And maybe with rose-colored bulbs...
Posted by: anon at December 6, 2006 9:41 AM
Like rose colored glasses for my house. I like it.
Posted by: Amy at December 6, 2006 10:03 AM
I had stained glass skylights in my c. 1910 rowhouse on Clifton Place. When I went up to clean I discovered that the panes were not leaded into place, they were just placed on a painted wooden framework. Pretty clever. Gravity held them in place, and they could just be popped up and out to clean. This would be a simple weekend project (not that you probably don't have 1200 of those right now). I'll send ya pics and more deets if ya want.
Posted by: glarph at December 6, 2006 11:48 AM
In your first picture, that looks like the original window frame slightly recessed into the opening. Personal preference, but stained glass is what's appropriate and what would really look the best.
Posted by: anon at December 6, 2006 11:57 AM
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