Your Guide to Glass Walls
By: Architectural Visions
Key Takeaways:
- Glass walls can consist of sliding glass doors, exterior sliding walls, and extra-large windows
- Glass walls offer many benefits including lots of natural light, which can help rooms feel spacious and be good for your health
- Because glass walls let in so much natural light, they can often reduce electric use and help save money on energy
- Due to the openness glass walls provide, they are popular in modern and contemporary homes
It’s All About Healthy Living these Days!
Everywhere you look these days, you’ll notice trends towards healthy living; from your diet, to work, to exercise. Indeed, we’re all thinking about how to make ourselves and our environment healthier. If anything is true in 2020, healthy home living has become even more essential as we are spending more and more time living and working at home. Therefore, we are all thinking more about the benefits of aspects such as natural light, green living, openness, etc., whatever it takes to make our homes healthier living and working spaces.
Walls of Glass Can be a Big Part of Healthy Living
In the discussion of healthy living trends in 2020, glass walls have become an increasingly popular subject on how to benefit you and your family’s healthy living and working, including their mental, physical, and experiential benefits. There are also not as obvious advantages that a wall of glass can offer, however, such as green living aspects as well as financial perks.
Here at AVI Windows and Doors we have the knowledge and expertise to help guide you through all the advantages that a wall of glass has to offer to you, your home, your wallet, and the environment. Here is a quick run through what a glass wall actually is, its benefits, where in the house you should consider installing one, and what the installation of a glass wall entails. We’ll then discuss the next steps to take to help us help you view, choose, and install a glass wall or two in your next home renovation.
What is a Glass Wall?
So first of all, what do we mean when we talk about a glass wall? The deceptively simple answer is a wall of glass, but there is a still a lot of nuance in how a glass wall can be composed. There are several design options such as sliding glass doors, exterior sliding walls, extra-large windows, and glass room dividers. Each of these has different composition as well as possible varying function depending upon the space in which you want to utilize them. All these designs share an opening effect beneficial to almost any room, including but not limited to living rooms, kitchens, or even a master bathroom.
What are the Benefits of a Glass Wall?
It goes without saying, the foremost benefit of a wall of glass in your home is the natural light and feeling of openness that is created by it. Spaciousness, more light, a modern atmosphere, and access to more expansive views can really make your home a more enjoyable space in which to live, cook, relax, and work.
Health Benefits
Let’s talk about you and your family’s health. Sunlight is just naturally good for you, physically as well as mentally. It helps wake you up and makes you more productive. We naturally feel better when have a sense of accomplishment during the day. Furthermore, you can see better with natural light and don’t strain your eyes or bend your posture while working. Also, the atmosphere of openness created by a glass wall can help create a sense of personal space in which to think, focus, and relax. Think about how important this is in a year when so many of us are sharing space more often with family. It’s important to have a sense of physical space to yourself to correlate with mental space. Lastly, the views created by a glass wall can help you still enjoy and experience the outdoors; again, so important to strengthening mental health.
Perhaps counter intuitively, a glass wall can also help you sleep. Along with creating a more enjoyable and productive day, natural light helps regulate a person’s sleep as studies have shown sunlight effects our circadian rhythms. This balancing act of our interior sleep patterns helps generate a more effective and deeper sleep. Thus, a cyclical mental and physical benefit is generated by a glass wall installation as the better sleep we get the better our mood is and the more productive we can be during the day.
Green Living Benefits
Because you’re letting more natural light into your home, you’re not needing to use energy from the electric company to power lights. The glass wall can also keep heat and cold out so there is less use of the air conditioner and the heater. Less energy use from the electric company is always a good way to help the environment.
Financial Perks
Along with helping the environment, you’re also helping out your wallet by not racking up an electricity bill by turning on interior lights or having to use air conditioning or heating so much during certain months. With the added benefit of less financial stress, you’re sure to again benefit your mental health each month as you save!
Customization options
With the different types of glass walls as well as the ability to tint them, there is a large range of customization at your fingertips when considering a glass wall for your next home renovation. Opening glass walls can actually be stacked together, creating whole new dimensions of customization. Consider also using different types of obscure glass depending on the amount of privacy you want the glass wall to provide. You can vary the level of obscurity as well as the pattern. This will be helpful if you want to be able to view the outside but don’t necessarily want people peering into your household.
The Flexible Modern Aesthetic of Glass Walls
Glass walls are a key component to creating a modern home feel, as they arguably create the most sense of openness in a household. However, they are highly flexible in their use. They can be used to include a whole outside space to a room, such as a dining room opening up to a beautiful mountain view, or they can divide space, such as shower from the rest of a bathroom.
Types of Households for Glass Walls
When considering a wall of glass for your household, you need to consider the style of home you want to emanate. As mentioned above, a glass wall is pertinent to a modern home feel, as well contemporary, because of the essential quality of openness in both styles. A glass wall may not jive well, however, with other styles such as a Cabin style or Victorian.
Home Aspects to Consider for Glass Walls
Along with the style of home your trying to create, you can also coordinate the design and type of glass wall you choose with the aspects such as type of furniture in a room, the fabric, the type of wood or stone used, the carpeting, etc. You’ll also need to keep in mind logistics of a home, such as weather. You may not want to install a sliding glass door in a location with extreme weather such as hail, for example. Furthermore, if security is a high priority, then you may want to consider the strength of material you use for the glass wall or whether one is appropriate in a certain space.
AVI Has Your Glass Wall
Whatever your glass wall needs and desires, AVI has got you covered. Our online and in-store services are available to help you view, choose, and install the perfect glass wall or walls for your next home renovation.
Please don’t hesitate to contact us online, by phone, or in-person at one of our southeast locations at your earliest convenience. We look forward to hearing from you!