Windows - A Decorative Element

I have a neighbor that thinks I'm crazy.

I kind of think he's nuts too.

See, he's slowly replacing all his old windows in his very old house, and as he replaces each one, he throws the old window out in the garbage.

I couldn't believe my eyes the first time I saw he'd thrown out a beautiful, 8 pane window. I rang his doorbell and asked his wife if I could have this little treasure. She looked at me as if I was insane. "It's in the garbage, so yeah, you can have it."

After that, he's been steadily tossing these gems out, and I've been steadily picking them up each time I spot them. I think our relationship is working out just fine.

Here are some ways I've used these freebies around my house:

After spray painting the windows black, I attached light-weight shelves to the wooden parts of the window pane. The shelves hold my small collection of Willow Tree figurines.

This is my living room window, I didn't add it, but I needed a way to put it to good use since it isn't a functional window (it looks out into my enclosed front porch).

I free-handed a tree, using a paint pen, and then filled it in with acrylic craft paint.

Using small frames and Contact velcro adhesive, I attached various pictures of our family members - making "Family Tree".

This long window I also painted black, attached burlap to the back of it, and then hung it. I decoupaged this star and it goes perfectly with the window. (If you use small nails, and hammer carefully, you can hang items from your window frames.)

Here's another window that I used as a decorative backdrop for this globe clock I made.

This is perhaps my very favorite use of a window that I've come up with.
I decoupaged scrapbook paper to the back of each window pane.
Now, I use this as my weekly "calendar". I write out each day's events on a different window pane. It looks really great and it functions very well as a way to keep me organized and on time.

For more inexpensive decorating ideas, you can find me over at BlueCastle.