Interior transom window: time for creativity!

This whole process of designing and finishing a remodel is one big exercise in creativity: how do you make something functional for years to come -- with a growing family -- and beautiful for the everyday, with a growing family?

The problem is, when you have so many decisions to make about things like interior doors and flooring, it's hard to luxuriate over non-necessities. Add to that the multitasking caring for two small children and preparing all one's food from scratch for health issues, and you have three full-time jobs. Some tasks just don't get their due, as interesting as they might be.

Take, for example, the transom window concept Anila of ALine Archicture came up with to allow natural light into our small main level full bath since it lost its window with the construction of the addition. We have the same problem at our current house, and I do tend to leave the light on in there a whole lot because otherwise it's so dark you don't even want to go in to wash your hands!

So, to let natural light into the bathroom, Anila proposed a 36"x14" transom window at the top of the shower into the big family room that has vaulted ceilings and two solar tubes.

On the family room side of the wall, the window would about a foot and a half above where we plan to put the piano. This was a fabulous idea, and I'm so glad we did it!

 

Anila suggested that we could create a custom art window that would float above the piano, about 12"x36". Between the piano and the window we could do some kind of mirror image of the window art in another medium, perhaps with hinges in between the two so it looks like a full built-in concept, a diptych.

Anila offered to come up with original artwork, but I wanted to give it a try myself, at least to get started. I've been musing on the design of this in my head for weeks, maybe months, craving the time to work on it. Since I love to play with design but don't have a ton of drawing prowess, I painted several sheets of paper with the colors I want and then cut them up into small pieces to make a collage.

It was beyond challenging to find uninterrupted time to arrange the squares. My soul really wanted to drop down into the activity for full creative expression, not just play at it like puzzle pieces on the way to switch out the laundry or between contractor phone calls. When I did try to do it while the kids were playing, my daughter just kept tipping over the baskets of collage "confetti" and mixing them up. I love abstract, but that's not the look I'm going for here!

I want the piece to feel organic and beautiful, but with a slight edge. Ideally this would be stained glass, which I adore. However, cost might push us toward an image printed on acrylic film. (And I also need to look into the issue of lead in solder and glass with stained glass).
 
The bathroom will have white wainscoting on the bottom half and be painted with Sherwin Williams' Liveable Green, a light sage green, on the top half (color-matched in AFM Safecoat at Amicus Green Building Center). The bathroom floor tile is dark green, and the tub surround is white subway tile. We have yet to find a vanity but are looking for a vintage wooden cabinet onto which we could put a sink. Let us know if you have something 18-22" square! Something like one of these from ModernBathroom.com.

On the piano side in the family room, the walls are Sherwin Williams Antique White (made in AFM Safecoat at Amicus). This is the color for the whole front entry (both rooms), kitchen and back addition. All the trim in the house is white.

I envision the primary colors of the window art to be purple and green, with some browns and peaches. The artwork should be something that will work well flipped upside down. So maybe it should be a trailing vine of some kind that goes up diagonally to the right on the window and down on the piece below, making a V that opens to the middle of the room. Or maybe it should be something with three blossoms, as I've tried to capture below. But it should be something botanically accurate, not silly little pom-poms of purple!

The walls were primed today, and painting and other finishes will be going on next week. We expect to move mid-July and are at the point where my contractor is hounding me to confirm the materials for this window, so I'm hoping to find a local glass artist to create it at a reasonable cost. And in the near future!