Hi my name is Carolyn and I hope I’m in the right place (smile). We are restoring and adding on to a 1890 Farmhouse. In the latest issue of IH it states that farmhouse windows should begin 8-18″ above the floor. The nightstands in our masterbed room are 31″ high by 36″ wide. Night stands are usually beside the bed, in front of the windows. Should I place those high stands in front of those low windows, or should I start those windows 30″ above the floor and violate the farmhouse window rules?
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Details like windows are what makes a remodel/addition look authentic.
The traditional window is longish and rather narrow. I vote for the right window. The night stands will be fine. Maybe your window treatments can help.
ShelleyinNM
Thanks. I should have used the proper term "restoration" for the orginal 956 square feet that we are retaining. Do you think those 30" x 60" windows are going to be too narrow looking for the 36" night stand?
I don't worry too much about things like that. I want my houses to look good empty. Most look pretty sad when all the decorating is stripped away.
Have you tried redrawing the elevation with different windows? Must the bed go on that wall? Can you tweak the floorplan so that the bed can go elsewhere? Are these egress windows, or is there another? Can the same windows be raised slightly? Or are they in line with others? What I'm saying is that touches to make the addition look old aren't completely ridgid. You just don't want some mongo picture window looking out of place.
For instance, if there's another egress window, could you make high square windows look good? Maybe somewhere over 2'0"? That would give you light while retaining wall space for furniture. Remember farm houses were enlarged over time. Not every element has to match. You just want to get the proportions correct. Would 3'0"x4'0" look OK if you line up the tops with the other windows? Think that gives enough for egress.
Sorry for the ramble. Just trying to think of things that I might try to do. If none of the above works, can you put a solid window treament on the bottom half of the window to mimic wall space? Solid shutters painted the wall color? Blinds that rise from the bottom?
I'm going to try and answer "some" of your questions. We're adding 3,000 sq feet to the existing 956 sq feet. The upstairs master bedroom is a part of the new addition. There are is an original window in an upstairs bedroom on the same side (south) as the new bedroom. Those original windows are 28" x 58". The bed and night stands do have to go on that south wall where the new windows are going in. The east wall leads to my husband's study, the west wall is the site of the sitting area and exit to the balcony and the north wall leads to the masterbed bath. I like the idea of the solid window treatment, and the ladies on the cooking site suggested shutters. These ideas just might work.
My two cents:
get new nightstands! (half serious, half jesting)
i, like you, like the idea of shutters. a great solution!
i'd say ya gotta ask yourself why did you go with an old farmhouse in the first place?
* was is cause ya loved it?
* were you ambiguous about the house but loved the location? the lot?
if you loved the house and bought it cause of that, there is no choice but to go with the "authentic" windows. to do anything else will make it look awkward, and make you sad everytime you look at it -- you will destroy the aesthetic, in other words. if you bought the house cause you love it, it will eat away at your soul to violate the spirit of the house by trying to save some bucks on some windows cause of 1) payin' extra for tempered glass and 2) a pair of lousy night stands.
if you bought the place for other reasons, and don't care about the house and its architectural integrity, do what ever you like. you could even go with some great "modern" windows, and capture different views of the outside! just make it a place that nourishes you and makes you feel welcomed when you come home.
Megan
who has a 100-year-old farmhouse and would rather cut off her husband's left foot than comprimise the spririt of its architectural charms!!! :-) even when that might mean gettin' a splinter in mah foot!! ouch!
(speaking of glass, i need to take out all the orginal (wavy) glass and turn it upside down -- for each window. boy, what a job THAT is gonna be!)
(speaking of glass, i need to take out all the orginal (wavy) glass and turn it upside down -- for each window. boy, what a job THAT is gonna be!)
If you're thinking that the glass will somehow "flow" down to even out, you're gonna do a lot of work for nothing - the uneven thickness is from the way the glass was made.
http://www.glassnotes.com/WindowPanes.html
Are you doing it for some other reason?
hahahaa!!!
Froed,
Bless you!! I'm gobsmacked! I WAS going to flip them around, just for the reason you said!!!
You're my hero!
I especially liked this part: "Why don't we find that Egyptian cored vessels or Hellenistic and Roman bowls have sagged and become misshapen after lying for centuries in tombs or in the ground? Those glasses are 1,000-2,500 years older than the cathedral windows."
Megan
blushing a little bit that I was so badly taken!
Megan, glad I could help.
Well, my job here is done...
Hector, thanks for your comments. I can't get rid of the "new" king-size bed with the high night stands because I got it at such a bargain. The bedroom is 17' x 26' and I need the large pieces of furniture. And, unfortuately, I didn't think of the windows when I was getting such a deal of the bedroom set.
I love the house. We have owned it for about 16 years, renting it out. I finally convinced by husband to restore it, make it larger, and make it our "dream home." All of you have encouraged me to do just what I really wanted to do which is to keep the integrity of the house. So, low, long, narrow windows it will be in all of the new rooms.
Thanks everyone.
Hi Carolyn. I would stick with the original style windows at the low height. If you don't like the look of the nightstands in front of the windows then maybe you could look at something like a set of wooden shutters on the interior that were split so you could close the bottom and have it line up at a suitable height to work with your stands. Sounds like a lovely home. Peter
I assume there's a reason they're on the cooking site. ;-}
"I cut this piece four times and it's still too short."
If this is an add-on you should match the rest of the house. Are the other bedroom windows low or higher?
The other windows in the upstairs bedrooms are in the original part of the house and they are low. Once we replace them (because we can not save them), we must comply with the city code of 18" above the floor to save ourselves the cost of tempered glass. There is another master bedroom downstairs and those windows are set at 3'6" x 5" because they have to be wide enough for emergency escape.
If you go that low with your windows, by code you'll need tempered glass. Check with your local code official for what is required.
The City of Pasadena is saying that anything below 18" has to be tempered glass. We will set them right at 18". They also said that if we did "anything" in terms of repair of the orginal windows that we had to comply with the new law.
Sorry Carolyn, I didn't read down far enough to see that you already covered that!
I thnk you are fretting too much over the "rules".
A farmhouse is practically by definition, a vernacular style that is whatever the occupants want it to be.
It is true that many older farmhouses have low sills but they also have low ceilings and illegal egress sizes.
Since your addition is so much larger than the original, it will dominate style anyway. Make it what suits you and egress requirements. I would not worry about the furniture height or let it determine house design issues. I hae lived in and worked on several of these old homes with higher furniture in front of lower silled windows.
I do have strong opinions tho about windoe with sills lower than 18". not only are they unsafe closed so as to require safe tempered galss, but they are unsafe for childredn when open.
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You're correct about the rules. I just finshed reading this great book called "The Farmhouse" by Larson and I was amazed by what some owners of newly built farmhouses had done.
The architect was very careful in the design so hopefully the new construction will not take over. The City of Pasadena was very specific about leaving the frontage uptouched so the architect carefully kind of tucked very thing behind the orginial on the second floor. On the first floor where it extends about 8 feet on the northside we wrapped the porch around to meet the new construction and balanced it with the southside.
Thanks for the advice.
Be careful in window height as below a certain height (help me out guys, is it 18?) needs to be safety glass. The nightstands will look fine in front of the long windows.