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We had a couple of little problems when we ordered stained glass
windows for a decorative
room divider between the front foyer and our dining room.
The good news is that
Home
Decorator's Collection made good on everything promptly. The
primary problem was that two of the windows arrived in a defective
condition. One of the rectangular windows had a couple of
hairline cracks in the glass and a circular window had more
substantial damage. |
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Since neither window could be sold as new, we worked it out with
Home
Decorator's Collection to save us both unnecessary shipping charges.
As a result we retained the defective rectangular window and decided to
use it as a fireplace screen as part of our
sitting room makeover.
To accomplish this, we had to (a) find a way to elevate the window to
properly cover the opening of the fireplace and (b) make sure that the
window was stable and would not tip over if bumped. We considered a
great number of ideas including shaping a wooden brace or converting some
type of furniture stand to suit our needs.
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A little time on eBay turned up these nice metal shelf brackets as a
solution. The seller was offering a number of shelf bracket
auctions, but these looked stylish. These also offered a short
4-inch long length to its shortest side. Most other brackets
we found measured at least six inches or more on it's shortest side.
A short side was needed so that using them as stabilizers for the
fireplace screen would not cause them to stick out too far into the
sitting room. |
The auction was for a bundled quantity of eight. After we converted
four of them for our use, we would decide if we wanted to use the
remaining four for something else or sell those on eBay to someone else
that might like to have them.
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When they arrived, they looked perfect for our project. The
only two problems would both be easy to fix. We first used
drywall filler and plugged all of the predrilled holes that would
not be used in our project so they would look like solid metal
parts. We then painted them a
Rust-oleum
flat black. |
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The black flat finish helped the brackets to look like wrought iron and
they looked much better for our project than their original "stressed"
antique white.
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We borrowed a scrap piece of lumber from the garage and used it to
raise the window as we attached the four brackets with spare screws
that we had in a junk box. Lynn used a level on the window
while I attached the brackets on the front side of the window.
On the backside, she used the level while I attached only one of the
brackets. We attached the fourth bracket simply by making sure
that it would not teeter on a flat surface. |
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The end result looked as good as we hoped. At right, the shelf
brackets have been attached and keep the window lifted off the
surface and very stable. |
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In the photograph at right, the stained glass window has been
positioned in front of the fireplace in the sitting room. |
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