Do you have a kitchen green house window? (shutters, louver, granite)

[LittleDolphin]

Seeking advice on whether we should install one. Did you have one put into your kitchen? Did it bring in more light?

My kitchen's kind of dark and was thinking of replacing the window over the sink with a green house window. What's been your experience? Does it brighten up the space?

Any ballparks on the labor cost would be helpful, too. I'll get a couple of bids, but wondered what to expect, roughly.

Many thanks,

LD

[Cattknap]

I don't know whether people still install those windows or not - to me they are junk catchers and very outdated but that is just my opinion. You'd be better off adding recessed lighting or nice lighting fixtures that would add more light.

[LittleDolphin]

Thanks for your opinion...I'm rather hoping to bring in more natural lighting...without a major remodeling outlay...so trying to find out if a garden windrow would do the trick.

Are they outdated?

I really don't know, don't follow the trends very much.

Anyone else?

[TFW46]

I dont think they're outdated. I had two put in last year...one in the kitchen and one in the dining room. A window company sold me the garden windows and installed them. I cant recall the cost (because I had other windows replaced at the same time) but it was the best remodeling $$$ I ever spent. Those two rooms have so much more light and look so much larger too. I had them lined with the same granite as is on my countertops (only in tile form, not slab). My only regret is that I dont have more windows that can be converted into garden windows.

Dining Room:
http://i172.photobucket.com/albums/w6/texasfirewheel/HomeChristmasCactiandWoodLazySus-13.jpg (broken link)

Kitchen (the window here is small but the garden window still lets in a lot of light:
http://i172.photobucket.com/albums/w6/texasfirewheel/HomeKitchen013-3.jpg (broken link)

[Cattknap]

Texas that is a beautiful window and I like that you lined it in granite. When I think of garden windows (popular in the 1980's & 1990's I believe), I think of the really large unattractive garden windows that some of my friends in So. California had. They were either empty (because the sun burnt any plant that was placed in the window) or they were catch-alls for whatever needed a place - mostly a hodge-podge of junk.

We have had one hot summer here in Kentucky and I try to keep the windows covered during the hot part of the day - blinds and lined drapes closed - it really makes a difference. I know that a window like yours would not work for our house in the summer - nothing would live in the heat that would be magnified by the glass of the window and it would cause the kitchen to be hot.

[TFW46]

Thanks, Cattknap. I have plantation shutters throughout the house and added them to the garden windows recently. It gets HOT here in Houston too but the plantation shutters keep out the heat, even when the louvers are open.

[LittleDolphin]

Those are mighty purty garden windows, now I'm sure I want one! Thanks for posting. What kind of flowers are those in the pots--sweet!

[TFW46]

The plants in the dining room garden window are Christmas cacti. They bloom from before Thanksgiving until after Easter. I have jade plants in the kitchen garden window and rotate between the two windows. Since the dining room window is larger and seen by more guests, the jade plants are there from spring to fall and then the Christmas cacti are moved there during the blooming season.

I never cared for indoor plants before I got the garden windows. Now I love tending to them and searching for nice pots.

Here are some of the jade plants:
http://i172.photobucket.com/albums/w6/texasfirewheel/HomeHotDay06-16-2010.jpg (broken link)

[LittleDolphin]

Thanks! Very cheery. I like what looks like your art glass collection of vases and pots above your kitchen cabinets...now I'm inspired...

[TFW46]

Thanks. Those are all Roseville vases above the cabinets and Roseville flower pots in the garden windows....all bought on eBay.