Published July 2002

Art glass adds beauty,
personality to home

By Kimberly Hilden
Herald Business Journal Assistant Editor

As mercurial as the light that hits it, a stained-glass, beveled or etched window offers “a different window every time” to those who look at it, said Anita Black, owner of The Glass Cottage in Smokey Point.

“It’s fascinating, that’s what I think hooks people into glass — you never get tired of looking at it because it does constantly change (with the light),” she said.

The same holds true for fused glass, another form of art glass in which glass is melted in a kiln.

And whether used in cabinetry, entryways, bathrooms or as skylights, art glass can add light — and a personal touch — to a home, said Stan Price, owner of Covenant Art Glass in Everett.

“It’s really fun to do projects that are special to people, that have some significance,” Price said, recalling a project he worked on for a woman in Edmonds whose hobby was growing irises.

“We removed wood panels from the door and replaced them with windows of the irises she grows,” he said.

And Black recently created an etched-glass piece of a five-point elk (pictured on this page) to set in a client’s front door. The couple who commissioned the piece are real “outdoors” people, she said, and now their entryway expresses that about them.

Along with adding sentiment, art class also can add value to a home, Black said, recounting a conversation she had with another glass artist who had made a multiple-window, stained-glass piece for a client.

“It was of trees — real elaborate wit h pretty good size panels, maybe 4 or 5 feet high and 2 to 3 feet wide,” Black said. “She charged them $5,000 for that job, and she found out later they’d had it appraised — it was worth $25,000 value to their home.”

That may not be the case with every window, Black said, but art glass usually adds more value to a home than what the homeowner initially spends on it. It also can be a selling point, like a nicely landscaped yard is on the house market.

“You’ve got to be careful, though. ... Is it going to be in colors the next person’s going to like?” she said, noting that often clients will stick to more neutral colors for entryway work.

“But if they’re sure what they want to do, it’s not that hard to pop it out and put back a plain unit, too,” she said.

Before deciding on a piece, Black said it’s important to think about where it will go. A bathroom window would need to provide more privacy than a hallway window would, for example.

Also, pay attention to the house’s architecture, Price said. “You want to do something in keeping with the style of the house.”

Then, of course, there’s the budget to consider.

The cost of commissioning a piece of art glass varies with the size and type of project, Black and Price said.

“Typically, most leaded work runs from $125 and up,” Price said, with the cost per square foot ranging from $125 to $300. “We’ve done work for less and work for more.”

As for etched-glass work, that typically runs about $75 per square foot, he said, but again, “we’ve done work for less and work for more.”

A more detailed piece will cost more, said Black, who estimates that sizable projects, such as a 4-foot half-circle window, usually fall in the $600 range, while a front door with sidelights and transom can cost anywhere from $1,500 to $2,000.

Back to the top/July 2002 Main Menu