Set Wide The Window

One of our house projects last month was replacing all the original windows on the main floor.  They were builder's grade which means they were the least expensive ones the builder could install. Which means the did not keep out the cold that well.  They did such a bad job of it, the metal frames and glass iced up on  sub-freezing days.  I've had condensation and frost form on the room side of windows before but never ice. So we replaced them. The difference is indisputable.  Not only are the windows not icing up, the inside of the house is warmer and the outside noise has dropped to the point of being almost unnoticeable.

One change we made was in a tall thin window in the dinning area.  That window was double hung, awkward to get to, and kind of useless since we have both a huge window and patio doors in the living room that we open whenever we need fresh air.  That is why I had the double hung window replaced with a sheet of glass.

After living with it for about a month I found I wasn't happy with it.  The view isn't that great so I decided to give it some sort of stained glass look using a window film. I bought a roll of film called "New Leaf" which measured out as more than large enough to do the whole window since the pattern repeated, or so the company said.  When I cut the size I need I had half the roll left and more than enough left, or so I thought, to make the repeat pattern line up.  I was wrong.  The pattern did not repeat along all edges but only along two of them.  The way I had cut the roll, which was the only way to cut it to fit my window,  was along the non-repeating edge. This meant that in order to cover the complete window in a way that made the edges matched I would need two more rolls of window film.  The problem with that was I would be paying for those two extra rolls and only using half of my original roll, half of the second roll, and a six inch strip off the third roll.  What a waste.

My husband suggested we buy one extra roll in some sort of contrasting design and I said I wasn't sure I wanted something like that but maybe I could center the "New Leaf" in the middle of the window and  use a frosted glass look at the top and bottom.  I found a frosted glass with a pattern called "Etched Leaf" and bought a roll of that.  When I put the pieces up I left a space between and around all three pieces creating a clear glass border that helps visually to break the sections apart. This you cannot see in the photo below but it works to help tie the sections together.

Who would of thought such that such a simple project would turn out to be so complicated?