With the health benefits of outdoor living, you cannot afford to confine yourself to the indoors. These benefits include stress reduction, immune system boosting, and promotion of good vision, among others. Moreover, outdoor living spaces give you the much-needed open space for entertaining. When constructing an outdoor living space, you have different options in terms of your building material, shape, and design. In most cases, maximizing the amount of sunlight in your area is the primary element upon which your choices will be hinged.
This has boosted the popularity of glass enclosures for patios. With the maximum sunlight this option guarantees, the costs of heating your outdoor space are reduced. Several alternatives exist for glass in outdoor spaces. The leading ones are, however, those that guarantee some level of privacy without hindering the inflow of sunlight. Stained glass is the best choice in this case. Here are the types of stained glass you can consider for enclosing your outdoor space.
Leaded Glass
The flexibility of lead when installed in groove strings and its durability make this a perfect choice for decorative panes on glass windows. The lead is applied on separate rectangular and square window panes that are then soldered onto each other. You can organize the glass panes in different shapes and widths to generate your desired design.
Antique Glass
This is the perfect choice for those aiming for a vintage look. The glass mostly resembles that used on cathedrals but includes different flowers and geometric designs that will set your outdoor living area’s design apart. Drawn, scribed, and full mouth-blown antique glass are some of the variations of this option for your space. Full mouth-blown antique glass includes attractive linear striations and oval or round bubbles. Drawn antique has mechanically-etched textural striations. Scribed antique, on the other hand, has linear striations etched by heat.
Etched Glass
This is also called flashed glass. It combines two colors on different glass panes with one thinner than the other. Hydrofluoric acid is used to remove a portion of the thinner glass to generate a design that combines the two colors into one. At times, sandblasting is used to remove some color from the thinner glass. Though it produces the same outcome as etching, sandblasting has a denser texture that will contrast the transparency of other sections of the glass.
Painted Glass
Despite its name, painted glass includes glass with an inherent color owing to its chemical content. Painting only encompasses the use of a monochromatic pigment on the glass. This pigment is fired to make it permanent and helps to delineate your window’s design concepts. The density of the glass can be controlled to generate opaque lines, or textured to control light and reduce halation.
Keep It Clean
When cleaning windows made of the above stained glass options, use mild kitchen soap and a glass cleaner. You can then dry them using a lint-free towel. Stained glass is prone to warping and detaching from its frame when not correctly installed. To negate this risk in your property, settle for an installer well-versed in constructing outdoor spaces and handling stained glass.
