There are many types of glazing on the market today. Some people may wonder if decorative glass is a good choice for their home or office. In this blog post, we discuss the pros and cons of decorative stained glass windows and help you decide if they’re right for you.
Questions to consider when choosing PVC windows
When choosing a new window, we usually pay attention to its characteristics such as material, color or price. It’s true. This list should also include thermal insulation, soundproofing and theft protection. There is no doubt that these aspects are crucial.
In today’s article we would like to highlight another rather important topic – glazing. More precisely, the types of glass that give us more privacy thanks to less transparency.
The applications of decorative glazing, as we call them here, are numerous. We hope you find the examples in the rest of this article useful and maybe even inspire you to use them in your own home, shop or office.
Types of decorative glass
Decorative glass is also sometimes referred to as decorative or chinchilla glass. All these terms are appropriate, because here the function of blurring the image is perfectly combined with an interesting composition and an original visual effect.
Decorative glass has a raised pattern created when liquid glass is rolled between two cylinders. The relief is usually on one side of the glass. On the other hand, glass is smoother but not perfectly smooth like float glass. Depending on the design, the level of transparency and image distortion, and therefore the level of privacy offered by a given panel, can vary from 1 (least obscuration) to 5 (most obscuration).
The following types of decorative glazing are distinguished:
- colorless,
- colored – usually a brown or yellow tint,
- Reinforced: There is an integrated metal mesh that increases the glass’s resistance to breakage.
Decorative glass is available in many interesting designs. It is worth mentioning some of the most popular: Crepi, Waterdrop, Master Point, Master Carre or Atlantic.
Benefits and Applications of Decorative Glass
Decorative crystals combine two very important properties: they maintain high light transmittance while protecting our privacy by distorting or blurring the image. For this reason, decorative glazing is mainly used when we don’t want to do without sunlight, but at the same time need to protect ourselves from the outside world. This type of glazing can be found in homes, offices, shops, hotels, restaurants and industrial facilities.
They are mainly used in:
- windows, especially in bathrooms and toilets,
- Doors – here we find both doors with only glass and doors with partial glazing,
- Room divider – a modern solution for offices and open spaces,
- exterior walls,
- glass shower enclosures,
- furniture such as doors or shelves,
- Glass balustrades and balustrades.
Is adding decorative glass to a window always a good option?
Honestly, the only downside to this type of glazing is that once installed, it is « doomed » forever. The only way to see what’s going on behind the window is to open it. With roller shutters or blinds, we can cover or release them at any time, so we are much more flexible.
However, if we are convinced that the window should always be protected from prying eyes in a certain place, then decorative glazing is one of the best solutions.