Windows are a crucial element to the look, feel, and comfort of your home. Where you place your windows in your house matters. Great windows can create beautiful curb appeal while giving you expansive views of nature and the outside of your home. They also let in light, a critical interior design feature for every room in your home.
A misplaced window can make a room feel smaller, create furniture placement problems, or hinder your privacy. Beyond placement, it is crucial to think through the size and type of window for each room in your home — understanding that all of these factors affect both the exterior and interior aesthetics of your home.
Window Placement on the Front of Your Home
The front exterior window placement of your home needs to take design precedence over interior placement. This is because the front of your home is your curb appeal, and you want your home to have a designed aesthetic for its first impression. Look at the style of your house, and choose windows that are in line with that style.
One of the most important design considerations is alignment and proportion for your front windows. Most homes look their best with a very linear and parallel layout for their front windows and door. While the exterior window design takes priority over the interior design for the front of your home, when you get to the sides and back of your home, interior placement of the windows becomes the priority.
Ratio of Window to Wall Space
It’s important to have the right amount of space in between windows vertically and horizontally. Too much space and your windows will look too small; too little space and your home will look disproportionate. Either extreme can simply look “off.”
However, there is no hard and fast rule. The proportion of wall space to window space depends on what design you are looking for. Consider having enough glass that you have great views, but don’t overstate the windows and create a visual disruption to the other design elements in your home.
Matching Window Orientation and Equal Proportions
Decide if the placement of your windows will be horizontal or vertical. Most homes benefit from picking one or the other. Many traditional two-story homes look best with vertical windows, while ranch-style or modern homes look great with horizontal windows. Once you have decided on the orientation of your windows, you need to figure out a height versus width ratio that you can use for most of the windows. The more you stick with this ratio, even with various sized windows, the more balanced your home will look.
Interior Window Placement
Interior window placement is key to the design functionality of each room in your home. And each room will require a slightly different design approach. Here are some tips for the most common rooms in your home.
Living Room
Usually, the biggest windows in the house are in the living room. Take into consideration the placement of furniture and the direction of the sunlight coming through the windows. If your living room is where you keep your television, remember that it can be very difficult to look at a tv screen that is reflecting a lot of light. At the same time, your living room might give you magnificent views of nature, so take full advantage of bringing the outdoors in with your living room window placement.
Kitchen
The kitchen can be one of the hardest interior rooms to figure out window placement, mainly because windows are competing with upper kitchen cabinet space. However, a great spot for a nice fixed window is over the kitchen sink. Natural sunlight in a kitchen can help with visual clarity while preparing food, washing dishes, and entertaining friends and family. Natural light tends to give spaces a welcoming, open feeling.
Bedrooms
One of the main considerations in a bedroom is which wall the bed can be placed against. Depending on the size of the room and where you can place windows to have the best views, the bed might need to be placed on the same wall as the windows. If this is the case, then consider a high transom window that lets in light but maintains privacy. Or, if you have room, flank the bed on either side with windows. If you are able, place your windows across from the bed so that anyone sitting in the bed can look out to a great landscape.
Partner with American Window Products
Are you building a new home or re-imagine the window placement in your current house? If you are considering investing in new windows for your home, we invite you to evaluate our high-quality product line, inquire about our extensive range of comprehensive warranties, and ask us any questions you may have about the installation project, from start to finish. With highly trained installation specialists, convenient financing options, and even free window installation estimates for your home, American Window Products, Inc. is ready to help.