Wood Working project plan

Every evening my hubby, our youngest and I go for a bike ride.  Its one of our favorite things to do just before sunset.  On our ride we always pass a house that had these wonderful HUGE old wood windows leaned up against their back garage, not being used for years.  To me, they were lovely and I couldnt believe they had been so easily discarded.  I finally persuaded hubby to go ask the owners about them.  Turns out, they didnt want them any longer so we happily took them off their hands.  Just goes to show, it certainly pays to ask, right?  

Heres one of them before I did anything to it.

There were 4 windows total, each of them 6 feet tall, two of them 4 feet wide and two of them 2 feet wide.  Several of the panes were broken out of a couple of them, but after looking at the windows more closely, I figure they can be easily replaced.  And hopefully, inexpensively.

Im hoping to do something unique with one of the larger windows and 

so I spent the weekend prepping it.

I happen to be in love with black window frames.  Im usually not one to incorporate lots of the color black into my decor but there is something about black window frames that I find stunning.  

Here are a couple of inspiration pics I found while hunting for some inspiration.

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I especially like them in mostly white rooms.

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And I really love them with warm wood accents.

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They really make quite an architectural statement.

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Of course, our house looks nothing like any of these and we arent changing our windows if thats what youre thinking.  I dont think were up for that kind of project.  ;)

But I love looking for inspiration this way.  Most of the ideas I came across for using window frames were a chalkboard, frame for photos, room dividers, mirrors, etc.  Im still not 100% sure what Im doing with this big ol thing but I love it so much I just have to use it, right?  And it is a "souvenir" of sorts to remind me of the relaxing bike rides we take each evening after dinner that have become so special to me.

I gave it a good cleaning and then scraped all the old paint off and painted it a color called Charcoal Sketch from Better Homes and Gardens.  Heres how it looks now.

As you can see, it is huge.  But thats what I love about it.  Ive never been all that into old window frames but this one is a treasure because of the size.  And thats why I really want to do something special with it.  I just have to figure out what that is!  :)

Stay tuned.....