11 Ways Glass Railings Can Elevate the Design of Your Home
Glass is a modern material that also blends beautifully with a wide range of design and architectural styles. If you’re looking for ideas to introduce glass into your home, here we will share 11 ways that glass railings can elevate any home design scheme.
What are glass railings?
Glass railings, or “balustrades,” can be used for staircases, balconies, terraces, pony walls, interior overlooks, open lofts, and more. The frameless glass panels are secured with metal spigots, replacing wood or metal posts for a modern aesthetic that’s ideal for a wide range of applications and design styles.
Glass railings offer many benefits and can be used for both interior and exterior designs as the ideal choice for homes where uncompromised views are a must.
1. Open up your space
Glass railings can replace common barriers that make a home feel crowded, such as pony walls, heavy bannisters on staircases, and balustrades for overlooks in areas like open lofts or atriums. They instantly create a feeling of spaciousness, allowing light to stream throughout the home, creating a brighter, airier feeling that completely opens up your space.
2. Let in more natural light
Glass allows limited natural light to shine through, which is an extremely effective design strategy in homes such as row houses, semi-detached residences, and town houses where windows are limited.
Using glass railings on stairs, installing glass balustrades instead of solid pony walls for sunken rooms, and even placing glass railings on exterior balconies and terraces allows the sun to shine in.
3. Make views a feature
Whether it’s a stunning garden, city skyline, mountainous or hilly landscape, or peaceful green forest, glass railings allow your lovely views to become a highly desirable feature in your home. They are the perfect solution for exterior balustrades, but work wonderfully for interior staircases, pony walls, overlooks from second-story open areas, and more.
4. Save energy with daylighting
Glass railings play an important role in harnessing the power of natural light. You can use natural light to save energy by leveraging “daylighting” throughout your home. It’s the best way to illuminate your home as sunlight softens the effects of artificial bulbs that can create eye strain.
You can also filter natural light using frosting on glass railings in areas where sun exposure is more extreme. This helps reduce glare in rooms such as offices or media/family rooms where sunlight can make it difficult to view digital screens.
5. Embrace the minimalist aesthetic
If your home is embracing the minimalist, modern aesthetic, glass railings reduce the overpowering look of traditional balustrades and railings that are too detailed and overbearing in a modern space. They work beautifully inside and out, taking care of the functional aspects of building codes without interfering with the sleek look you desire.
6. The beauty of customization
Glass railings allow you to create a completely bespoke look to staircases, pony walls, overlooks, exterior terraces, and more with a wide selection of glass finishes, spigots, handrails, and steps available. You can work with a designer to create something unique to reflect the architectural style of your home or as a stunning one-of-a-kind statement feature.
7. Seamless transitions between indoors and outdoors
Homes that feature floor-to-ceiling, wall-to-wall windows, or enjoy beautiful views, can create seamless transitions between your chic interior and your natural surroundings using glass railings.
Whether focusing on uncompromised views from an exterior balcony, or ensuring views can be enjoyed from every room in the house using glass railings for your staircase, when your exterior boasts lovely views or features such as a fountain, beautiful landscaping, or nature at its best, then glass railings allow you to bring the outdoors in.
8. Complement other glass features in the home
Although glass railings are the ideal statement piece for staircases, if you want to create continuity throughout your home, these railings will work beautifully.
Whether you have stunning statement walk-in showers, glass partition walls in your home office, or modern glass doors, glass railings allow you to make the most of this trendy aesthetic for a seamless, light-filled look.
9. Modernize without compromising historic features
One of the simplest ways to modernize an historic home without compromising the original character is introducing glass railings.
Because they are clear, you can use glass railings to draw attention to the historic architectural features of your home using glass stair railings paired with original exposed brick walls, showstopper beams or to allow original wide plank wood floors to be viewed from upper floors.
10. Allow other materials to take centre stage
Transparent glass is the ideal material to allow other materials to take centre stage. If you want your staircase to disappear to improve views of other dramatic features in your home (such as original art pieces, a sparkling chandelier, beautiful wood panelling, or soaring coffered ceilings), then glass railings will allow the most intriguing materials and showstopping design pieces to shine.
11. Combine safety and style
When safety is a necessary aspect of your home where kids, pets, or multi-generational needs must be met, glass railings allow you to install stylish safety features that feel more like intentional designs.
You can use glass railings to suit a number of surprising purposes, from exterior ramps for easier accessibility to pony walls offering support in the bathroom.
Contact the Glass Railings Experts
As you can see, glass railings can be used to elevate your home’s design, showcasing views, enhancing natural light, and creating a sense of spaciousness. You can also draw attention to your home’s most exciting features by eliminating distracting traditional balustrades.
For more information about NorthVue Glass frameless glass railings, click here. You can also email us at Info@northvueglass.com or contact us online.