Bay windows have a special charm and a very long history. Everyone who decided to have a bay window installed in their home would benefit considerably from both an increased curb appeal and functionality. Once you have a bay window, your will instantly have an extended space in your house, space which you can easily use for storage, growing a beautiful garden or just snuggling up with a book or a cup of tea.
Bay windows date back to medieval times, where they could be found in castles permitting spectacular views. Later on a bay window appeared in the Georgian period of the 18th century and was then very popular in English countryside homes.
Being a significant part of Victorian architecture, where it was in a high demand, a bay window kept on gaining its popularity and eventually stopped belonging to just Victorian style homes, and nowadays many architects include them in their various residential projects.
Many home owners appreciate the versatility of bay windows, including additional space and abundance of light they deliver and therefore consider them a worthy investment, which raises the house value.
Bay windows always project from the main wall and usually consist of a fixed central window flanked by two operating casements or, sometimes, double hungs. Sometimes there can be more than one window on each side of the fixed casement. The vertical posts between the bay parts are called mullion posts.
Bay windows are presented in the shape of a square, polygon, semicircle, or even a circle. 30, 45, 135 and 150 degree angles are the most commonly chosen ones for building bay windows. Let’s take a closer look at all the bay window types and see how they differ.
The most typical one is called a box bay window (image on the left), it has a projection angle of 90 degrees and consists of three windows. If a box bay happens to have a glass roof, then it is called a garden bay, also knows as a greenhouse window.
A bay window located in the upper level, supported by corbels or brackets and not reaching to the ground is called an oriel window (image on the right), deriving from the Latin word “oriolum”, meaning “porch, gallery”. As the name presumes, it was inspired by the idea of creating a porch in the upper level of a house. Usually such windows have quite decorative and ornate corbels and quite often can be seen in Arabic architecture being called “mashrabiyas”.
Another variation of a bay window is called a bow window. It forms an elegant curved line of a semicircle and has at least 4 windows in it.
Bay windows can also be made in a circle shape for an increased dramatic effect to complement the overall architectural appearance of the building. Circle bay windows are an excellent place to add a round bench and make the extra space even more cozy and inviting.
In North America San Francisco is the city with the largest number of bay windows in its architecture. This city is famous for its historic Victorian and Edwardian homes, between 1850’ and 1915 there were nearly 48 thousand of such homes built. Nowadays, many of them are a popular tourist attraction called “Painted Ladies” because they were painted in bright colours.
If you consider installing a bay window but are hesitant to decide which type to choose (a bay or a bow), think about what architectural style your home belongs to. You may want to go with a bay if it is more of a modern style home since a bay window offers more angular structure, while a bow window creates a graceful contour suitable for traditional residences.
If your goal is to allow more light in the room, a bow window consisting of multiple panes may be a preferential option. Bay windows, however, offer more floor space than bow windows since they protrude more from the wall.
Bay windows provide you with an excellent opportunity to improve both exterior and interior appearance of you house and add to the value of it. You just have to make sure you contact a reputed supplier who can build quality bay windows in custom sizes and angles so you can install what suits your house the best.
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