Making a Picture Window

Several years ago, I went to an estate auction where I scored 23 old windows for $10. It was the best score. I have finally used up or sold all of those windows. The last 2 windows were used in today's project.

We have this little corner in the basement that's a little dark and boring. We knew this corner was going to become a little eating area, but we needed to add some interest to it. 

We had saved to similarly sized windows for another project the hubs wanted to do in his lounge, but plans changed, and he decided to do something else in there, so these 2 windows sat in the storage room. 

Then when we were discussing ways to brighten up the corner and add interest, I asked about turning the windows into art. I told the hubs that I'd like to put watercolor landscapes of Boston and Charlottesville or UVA up in the windows. He agreed, and I went about my project. 

I did a Google search for Boston skylines and then several searches for Charlottesville/UVA. The Boston skyline picture was easy to find, the Charlottesville/UVA one - not so much. It was just hard to decide if I wanted a picture of Monticello, farm land or downtown. Then I found a picture of the Lawn at UVA, and I was sold.

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So I saved each picture to my computer and then opened up Photoshop. I did another Google search on how to create a watercolor effect in Photoshop. I found {THIS} great tutorial on how to do it. It was really simple, and created the exact effect I wanted. 

So I opened up my images and then resized them to the size I needed for the windows, which was poster size (24" x 36"). The UVA image was a little pixelated, because it was a lower dpi (dots per inch) than the Boston image, but that didn't really matter, given the effect I was going for. 

I then followed the tutorial for the watercolor effect, and I ended up with these images.

Then it was off to Staples' website. I chose to have Staples print out my images in color architectural prints. Both prints cost me $12.50. Awesome!

The architecture prints that staples offers was perfect for what I needed. It's not a crisp photo and the paper is lighter weight, but none of that mattered. I was going to be mounting these photos behind the windows. 

I choose not to have Staples rush the job, so I picked a time 2 days away, it didn't matter though, because Staples had the job done the next day. When I picked up the prints, I was so pleased by how they came out that I may have gushed about my pleasure to the lady behind the counter. 

I raced home and got to work on mounting the pictures on the window. I used duct tape, cause it was what was on hand. 

The effect is perfect!

Hanging these windows ended up being a bit of a pain, because the first wall I worked on had a duct running right behind the drywall, so I couldn't add the anchors where I wanted to. The window ended up having to move slightly towards the corner so that I could get the anchors through the wall. 

The second window went up with no problem. Thank goodness.

Pay no mind to the destroyed vent in the wall. I don't know how or why it's damaged, and the kids have no idea how it got that way. Their hypothesis is that Baby Girl did it. I don't think so. Tomorrow I'll be sharing what we did to that pub table. 

Cheers everyone!

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