Completing Your New Arts and Crafts Style Home in Austin

Recently I have come across three “new” Arts and Crafts style homes.  It seems this style of home is becoming more and more popular with new builders in Austin, Texas.  The common string behind all three homes is the use of a lot of glass and transom windows.  Transom windows were typical in the traditional Arts and Crafts home.  They aided, and still do aid, in allowing natural light into the home.  These transom windows are necessary to the new Arts and Crafts homes, to complete the desired look of yesteryears.

The one thing lacking in this new trending style with home builders, is the stained glass windows.  Yes, the new Arts and Crafts homes in Austin are built with modern amenities and features common to the every new home, but stained glass is rarely used to complete the look. 

Stained Glass Designs In Your Austin Home

If you’re designing and building a home with a certain era in mind, then I think one should complete the look with stained glass.  You might not think that the addition of the stained glass windows would really make a difference, but that little transom window above the front door makes a great first impression of the home.  One of the most recent requests was for transom windows above the back door to the patio and the side door off the kitchen.  Because these areas were in two separate locations, the owner was ecstatic about having a Frank Lloyd Wright style stained glass window above the living room transom, and a custom stained glass window consisting of a Texas bluebonnet and Mocking Bird in the kitchen.  Although the interior furnishings of the home were very contemporary in style, the owner wanted to stay true to the architecture of the home, and found this as a great opportunity to add custom artwork.

In the end the new stained glass windows will accomplish so much.  They will be custom art, still allow natural light into the home, and most important add that finishing touch that was missing from the Arts and Crafts home.

So the next time your cruising through a new development and see the Arts and Crafts style home and think “something’s missing”, try to imagine a Frank Lloyd Wright style stained glass in the transom window above the door, or in the large attic window.  They say history always repeats it’s self in the world of design.  Don’t be afraid to embrace it.