The Iron Grilles in my Window.

This was a long and drawn out journey.  Remember me telling you about a serious mistake I made in the design process?? 

This is it.

In the beginning I really wanted opaque glass in my sidelight windows next to my front door. (Who likes people poking their head in to see if you are home??? I don’t want people to know it’s noon and I am still in my bathrobe!!!)


So I ordered the glass in what was called “Cross Reed” privacy glass.  I saw a 2”x2” square sample of the privacy glass and even though I wasn’t sure what it would look like, I thought it would be a fun option.

Well it comes in and SERIOUSLY it looked like  80’s DISCO/TECHNO glass next to my Tuscan front door. 

I was horrified, what did I do???

LUCKILY there was a minor malfunction with the glass and I got to replace it for NO CHARGE.  I was pretty skittish with picking any opaque glass so I just ordered it clear.  I told myself that if I wanted to add some texture to the glass or some privacy film I could always do it later. 

Now I had to figure out how to make that glass look like part of the front door.  I spent HOURS trying to figure out the best plan that didn’t cost a lot because as everyone knows at the end of building a house YOU HAVE NO EXTRA $.


I played around with the idea of buying films to stick on the window but it just didn’t seem right, it seemed so flat and my door was so full of dimension.  Next I thought about adding iron – here were my mock ups.

Tutor style diamond grids? (just used Photoshop)

Super organic and swirly?

Next step was going to my local iron welder metal shop and figuring out if I could even afford this and what design I wanted.  Let me tell you I was a SIGHT!  I walk into this definitely MALE world and started asking about how I could make pretty sidelight iron grilles.  I showed them this danty little drawing below  

Once again, I can’t even tell you how many HOURS I spent trying to figure this all out!!!  You see, I had to come up with a design on pieces that they already had IN STOCK (to keep the price down) and it had to pretty much fit within the window size that was there.

Fortunately, the guys were nice and even started helping me lay out designs on the dirty concrete floor!

After I met with them I called up the guy who did the iron interior window and got a price.  Remember, these were 12” x 60” – a pretty decent size custom order….


They came back at $130.00 each and that was also having them professionally powder coated (which makes them totally weather proof, no paint chipping on those babies!) 


I was HAPPY.  For $260.00 I had a better look than I had ever imagined.  The outside hasn’t been painted yet but the trim will be a VERY dark brown color.

What do you guys think?   I still might take some Gallery Glass and swirl in some texture so that it’s not totally clear. 

You would think that having BARS in the window might keep a few peeping toms out but my guess is if they are the peeping type, bars or no bars on see through glass wont stop them!

Here is a picture from the inside looking out.

And for those that remember my crazy post about spray painting my new entry lights, here they are up and glowing….OK not glowing yet, maybe they aren’t hooked up, I tried to find the switch but nothing turned them on……still figuring this all out I guess!

Update!  Be sure and check out the FINAL house pictures!

Have a great day you guys!!!

~CreativeJuicesDecor~