The previous owners of our little Queen Anne Victorian house renovated the back porch into an extension of the kitchen.
Architecturally speaking, the renovated back porch is the antithesis of design style compared to the rest of the house. The renovation didn’t stop at the load bearing central wall and chimney stack. It carried on for six more feet thus absorbing one of the three bay windows of the dining room (which are mirrored at the front of the house (the living room). They omitted lighting fixtures and HVAC ducts; installed one 2-gang outlet and a very narrow skylight; and failed to insulate the floor or remove that one bay window and convert the opening to a doorway or seal it with drywall.
Well, after 12 years of living with an interior, vinyl-clad double-hung window which opens into the enclosed back porch, I had the idea to demo the window and modify the opening with antique glass and the velvety alabaster color of poplar into a double-sided book-case.
And I must say it turned out beautiful; but more — unique.
Sometimes, I’ve discovered, that people see the obvious as the only answer. Obvious things tend to be common, expected things.
What if a window were a book-case or a picture frame or a Gemini Clock?
HARLAN DIDRICKSON 