Whether you’ve recently purchased your home or you’ve lived in it for years, one fact remains certain: you love the property. Your home is more than just a place you live. It’s a place where you have made or will make memories.

You want to continue having good experiences in your home, so you do your best to care for the entire property. You clear weeds out of the yard, and you landscape the outside so it looks pleasing and incredible. You plan to update the exterior paint. And you even want to add a few pieces of patio furniture to give your home that extra touch.

But have you thought about including your home’s windows in your efforts?

You love the natural light your windows let in, and you love your view through them. Generally, having a lot of big windows can make your home feel more spacious and comfortable. However, can you have too many windows? Would you want to live in a glass house?

This blog will tell you about buildings in the United States that are mostly made of glass. It’s up to you whether you love or hate them, but they are definitely worth seeing if you are ever nearby.

There’s nothing like having adequate natural light in the home. The white sunlight during the day can give a room a comfortable, refreshing glow, and having enough light while doing focused tasks can save your eyes a lot of strain.

One of the best ways to let natural light into your home is through skylights. Being at a more optimal position than regular windows, skylights allow more natural light into the room and can improve the appearance of a space.

But while natural light is always a plus, is it worth installing a few skylights? If you’ve been considering a skylight or two in your home, read on to discover six of the benefits a skylight can provide.

No matter how much you love your home’s layout and design, you may still run up against one common problem: lack of storage space. Many people tend to accumulate more and more things as the years go by. You may find your collection of must-read books or vacation souvenirs constantly expanding, or perhaps you keep bringing home unique objects from flea market shopping sprees.

If your home lacks place to display or store these items you cherish, consider adding sleek glass shelving in strategic locations around your home. This design feature will increase your storage space and refresh your living spaces.

Do you wonder if you can get more from the windows and glass at your home or office building? Maybe you’ve heard about recent advancements in energy-efficient windows, or perhaps you’re curious if you could make your property safer with a more durable glass type.

If your budget is holding you back from buying brand-new glass, consider adding window film instead. This product comes in many types and can add numerous upgrades to your building for a fraction of the price of new glass. Check out these eight amazing advantages you can get from window film.

Every homeowner both immediately recognizes and inherently dreads the sound of shattering glass that indicates a broken window. Even a single shattered pane can make your home vulnerable to injury, theft, or the elements.

Whether the window breaks during a storm or a backyard baseball game, you must take steps to minimize other damage and protect your home and family until you can have repairs made.

Immediately after a window breaks, clear the area and check any family members or pets for injuries. Then, arrange for a replacement pane with your trusted glass repair person.

After you take these preliminary steps, use the three strategies below to tide your household over until the new pane is securely in place.

Glass. It’s ever-present in today’s society, and you use it more than you probably realize.

It allows you to feel like part of the great outdoors while shielding you from harsh weather conditions. It brightens up any room and offers an elegant feel to an interior design. It enhances the beauty of flower arrangements, vintage photographs, and other home decor.

Glass offers a variety of benefits—it is multipurpose, strong, attractive, and easy to maintain. It is available in almost any shape, color, and style. But even with all these benefits, you might wonder if glass is right for your interior design. The answer to that question is: yes!

Because of its versatility and innate beauty, glass pairs well with any and all home designs. Whether you’re building a new home or just redesigning one room, glass is the perfect way to liven up your interior space.

You love the gorgeous aesthetic that windows give to your home. They let natural light flood in, where it illuminates all the best parts of your décor. If you could add more windows, you would.

However, you also know that windows pose a safety risk. For burglars, windows represent the home’s easiest access point. They can shatter the glass and climb in, or they could jiggle the latch open and enter your home that way.

This fact may make you want to have fewer windows. But don’t let the threat of burglars keep you from enjoying your natural light. You can keep your windows (and even install more of them) if you know how to make them more secure. We’ll tell you more about this below.

Each variety of glass has something unique it brings to your home or business. Do you need extra sturdy glass to withstand your nine-year-old son’s baseball or to protect your storefront windows downtown? Do you want glass that will lower your energy bill? Do you want beautiful, colored glass for above the front door?

You want to choose the right type of glass for your home. Below, we’ve listed five different types of glass and the ways you’ll benefit from each. Use this guide to choose the perfect glass for your windows, doors, and walls.

1. Insulated Glass

A home with lots of windows fills with beautiful, natural light, and its value on the market rises with each window. The downside? Lots of windows can mean a hefty energy bill.

A normal, single-paned window contributes to significant heat loss in cold weather and heat gain in warmer months. But with insulated windows, you can improve your home’s energy infrastructure and save money. Insulated windows prevent:

• Infiltration, or air leaking around the sides of the window
• Conduction, or heat passing through the glass
• Radiation, or heat moving from a warm place to a cold one until both are the same temperature
• Convection, or cold air sucking more air toward the window

Because insulated windows are built specifically to avoid heat loss and regulate the window pane’s surface temperature, your home’s energy efficiency immediately increases. In fact, an uninsulated window can have a surface temperature of 30° F; insulated windows don’t get much lower than 56° F. When you choose insulated glass, you can bid farewell to a massive energy bill.

Insulated windows include double or even triple panes, so they not only insulate—they also reduce outside noise. Their layered panes prevent more sound vibrations from passing through than a single-paned window would. Manufacturers use regular air or even argon or krypton gas to separate the panes, and these gases reduce noise even more.

2. Plate Glass

Also known as sheet or flat glass, plate glass prevails throughout the world because it is time-tested sturdy, and beautiful. Modern architecture, with its enormous glass panels for windows, walls, and doors, depends on plate glass for a stunning effect.

Plate glass windows are durable. Its unique content, with large proportions of sodium oxide and magnesium oxide, make it difficult to break and easy to bend—which is one reason why most car windshields are made of plate glass.

Because of plate glass’s stability, it can be spun into extremely large sheets. Many businesses choose plate glass for their windows and walls so they get a seamless, uninterrupted effect.

3. Safety Glass

If you need glass to provide shatter-proof security, you need safety glass. This type of glass is tempered to increase its strength and durability. Some types of safety glass actually include layered plastic for added toughness.

Use safety glass where you foresee a chance of impact (and of falling and crashing, once shattering occurs). Skylights, windshields, and even architecture in locations prone to hurricanes and heavy winds take advantage of safety glass.

One fantastic perk of safety glass windows: if the window does break, it will not break into sharp, dangerous shards. Instead, the glass will splinter, making it slightly less dangerous. Safety glass is used institutionally in schools and hospitals, and offers a great option for homes with kids.

4. Fire-Rated Glass

When you think of fire protection in your home or business, you probably don’t think of your glass windows. But fire-rated glass is built to provide protection during a fire by preventing smoke and flames from spreading.

Fire-rated glass looks just like other kinds of glass—smooth and transparent. But while other kinds of glass shatter at 250° F, fire-rated glass can endure heat up to 500° F.

In addition, fire-rated glass mush pass national standards and tests before it receives a safe and durable rating. Experts rate glass by how long it can withstand heat, pressure, and impact. Your fire-rated glass won’t put out a fire or alert you of flames, but its ability to contain fires has saved thousands of lives.

5. Decorative Glass

Beautiful stained glass represents just one option for decorative glassworks. Decorative glass continues to gain popularity in American homes because of its beauty, versatility, and uniqueness. This type of glass will help you customize your home or business and stand out from others.

Beveled glass, for example, slopes edges of the glass sheet, which causes light to display spectacular patterns. Stained glass consists of inlaid glass panes that separate the colors to create breathtaking shapes. And frosted or patterned glass can give your windows or doors special emphasis.

Decorative glass also refers to its shape and use. Curved glass walls, fanlights, bay windows, glass stair enclosures, and even shower doors all use decorative glass.

When designing or choosing decorative glass, consult with your glass specialist, who can custom-make your glass to meet your needs. 

As you get ready for the day, perform your daily tasks, and go to bed, you probably don’t take the time to ponder the value of mirrors. But you most likely use mirrors more than you realize—when you do your hair, brush your teeth, apply make-up, shave your face, and decide what to wear. Even when you leave the house, you still rely on mirrors to safely drive your car.

Imagine getting ready for a big presentation at work without a large mirror in your bathroom. Sure, you can attempt to use your phone’s screen or another shiny surface for reflection, but that just won’t cut it.

It’s safe to say that mirrors play a vital role in your life’s comfort and functionality. They allow you to clearly see yourself and the things you do. But mirrors offer much more than this. If you’ve never thought that custom or decorative mirrors would be necessary for your home’s appearance or your personal lifestyle, think again.

Advantages of Custom Mirrors and Decorative Mirrors

Mirrors provide numerous perks that promote unique, home-boosting benefits.

With some cleverness and ingenuity, you can harness the previously untapped potential of mirrors in a way that complements your home’s style and your preferences. In addition to helping you get ready for the day or for bed, custom and decorative mirrors:

• Enhance interior design
• Generate more space
• Bring in light
• Facilitate physical activities

If you want these features in your home but you don’t know where to start, consider the following ideas.

1. Replace or Complement Pictures and Artwork with a Mirror

When you want to make a bold or elegant statement in your home, mirrors act as a great aesthetic option. If you need a finishing touch on your living room wall, put up a round mirror in a dark metal or wood frame. A modern mirror like this adds contrast and livelihood to an area that might be dominated by either too much plain color or too many pictures.

Or, do you own a large hutch with empty space in the middle? Fill the void with a mirror to add variety and depth. If it’s far enough away from your bathroom, the mirror also acts as another convenient place to check out your reflection.

2. Position a Mirror to Make Your Rooms Feel Larger

Mirrors offer more than a place to check your hair—they perform a number of handy tricks. For example, you can create the illusion of a larger, more open room with a well-placed mirror. If you’re not worried about spending the money, consider a wall covered in mirrors.

A mirror wall will reflect the entire room—whether it’s a dark den, small dining room, or windowless bathroom. This reflection causes the room to feel twice as large. This particular route works best if your house contains small or cramped rooms.

If you don’t want to break the bank, try putting a smaller, framed mirror on a wall as if it were in the place of a window. This will connect your home’s interior space to the openness of the outside world, especially when done in rooms or hallways that feel claustrophobic.

Remember that the strategic placement of a mirror will generate either subtle or drastic impressions of space.

3. Let a Mirror Invoke More Light

Use a mirror’s reflective quality to your advantage when you want more light in your home. Whether you require more natural light from outside or greater illumination from a lamp, you can count on a mirror to deliver the desired result.

For more artificial light, simply place a mirror near a lamp or light fixture to bounce the radiated light around a room. If natural light appeals more to your homeowner inclinations, place a mirror on a wall directly opposite a large window. This will allow the mirror to reflect the sunlight from the opposite window and cast even more light into your room.

 4. Create a Mirrored Home Gym

If you love to keep your body in shape but prefer to exercise in an indoor gym, think about the impact a mirrored wall makes.

Translate the experience of working out to your own home by creating your own personal gym space. Cover the walls with mirrors to enhance your regimen and liven up the room. The mirrored wall will also provide you immediate visual feedback while you exercise—you can see your progress and check your form.

Unlock the Power of the Mirror

This list includes just some of many benefits of mirrors. Remember these ideas when your home needs a quick fix or major overhaul. You can adorn your empty wall, open up your office, attain a brighter dining room, or upgrade your home gym.

With mirrors, decorative or custom, you can make a big change in your home with a small amount of work.