My husband and I were not a couple when he bought our condo.
Why he bought it, I don’t know. The people who lived here before us had no concept of interior design.
Now I admit I’ve watched endless amounts of home decorating shows and I’ve consistently said that everyone has their own tastes in decor. However, I think most people would agree that decorating a kitchen with mauve coloured cabinets, yellow back splash tiles and completing the look with white and green laminate flooring is reprehensible!
Were the previous home owners colour blind or did they just have a fascination with Easter colours? I kid you not… this kitchen made my head spin.
A couple years ago, my husband and I completely renovated the condo. We tore out the kitchen, we removed the eight different types of flooring from all the rooms and installed hardwood throughout. It was a huge task and we’re still not done all of our projects but overall, we have decorated our condo to our liking.
Yet there is another decorating obstacle which we now must overcome.
Our condo has three bedrooms; a master bedroom and two smaller bedrooms.
The two bedrooms share a wall which (brace yourself for this one) has a glass block “window” that is 40″ tall by 54″ wide. You guessed it, the previous owners installed it. Why did they put a glass block window between two bedrooms? Your guess is as good as mine. What were they thinking???
We currently use one bedroom for my daughter and the other bedroom as an office. However, in about four months the office will need to be a baby’s room and we can’t have light shining from one room into another.
Our present solution is a large room darkening blind installed on the office side. This solution won’t work anymore because it is the wall where the crib will need to go (and my thoughts are that blinds and babies don’t mix).
My husband and I have contemplated moving the blind into my daughter’s room but quite frankly that’s a joke. We both know that within no time she will rip that blind off the wall.
So here are some of our thoughts:
CORK BOARD
Mount a large fabric-covered cork board over the opening. The cork board can then be used to display artwork and pictures. The downside… the cork board we would require to cover the opening costs about $150.
A MURAL
Paint a huge mural on canvas and cover the opening. The cost would also be about $150 (and my husband and I would have to fine tune our artistic skills in order to pull off this project).
PEEL AND STICK PAPER
Another thought is to cover the blocks with a peel and stick paper. Then mount small wood strips to create a built-in book display shelf. We’re not really sure how the wood strips would be mounted but this would be a very affordable solution.
PAINT
Paint over the blocks with wall paint? Although affordable, I’m not sure if paint would stick to the glass blocks and this solution may pose a problem if we had to resell the condo. If we find a paint that sticks, I’m not sure how easy it would be to strip it from glass blocks.
That’s all of our ideas for now, but we would love to hear your ideas and/or suggestions.
You didn’t mention overall size of area with glass blocks, or size of entire wall; however, since you hate it, rather than covering it, remove the blocks and replace with drywall in nursery. For daughter’s bedroom side, make use of available space by creating bookshelf. If you truly don’t see those glass blocks in your future, drywall, wood for shelves and some trim for bookcase would be my suggestion. inexpensive.
We replaced some drywall in our bathroom this summer and it wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be! If you really don’t like your blocks, would you be interested in removing them and drywall patching both rooms? It would involve painting both rooms so I guess it depends on how much time you guys have, but it would be a bonus for resale down the road and would probably give you the best and most permanent use of your funds. Drywall patching scared me when I saw the big hole left by our plummer but it wasn’t too hard (and Todd and I are definitely NOT handy).
Thanks for your suggestions ladies!
This is a 40″ x 54″ area that would need to be fixed. The idea of removing the blocks and then filling the area with drywall frightens me. Plus I don’t want to disturb my daughter’s room and space too much. It would be awful if there was a hole in her wall for a month!
Tear the glass block out and stud the wall in. Then drywall of course! It’s a “no-brainer”!! Problem solved!
Surely you have one friend with some basic carpentry skills? It shouldn’t take more than a half a day for him/her to tear out the glass blocks, nail in some 2×4 studs, put up some drywall on both sides. All your daughter would have to live with, until you get around to painting it, is a patch of drywall.
BTW, loved this post! You gave me my first laugh (out loud) of the day!
Jean: We don’t know anyone who can knock the blocks out and fix the wall. We ended up putting the baby crib against the other wall and keeping the blind. Hopefully one day we can manage a permanent “fix” (or we make friends with someone who has trustworthy carpentry skills).
you need to watch more home remodels and less home decorating shows… stud and drywall… $50….
Oh my word….I agree…what is up with these people and their weird ideas?! We also have those ugly glass block windows, but at least ours are in the master bathroom…but still. It’s been a nightmare! They put in 2 glass block windows above the soak tub which sits in the corner. They are South and West facing! You would almost not believe how HOT it gets in there in the summer. I have black out blinds covering the windows, but even still, I have to shower, dress, and finish getting ready for my day without any lights on so I’m not needing another shower when I am finished. They also put in 2 wall-size mirrors directly across from said windows, with…get THIS…2 long light bars that contain SIX light bulbs EACH!! It’s a sauna in there! My only solution, so far, after living this way for 3.5 years is roman shades. Maybe you can just have yours removed and have a ‘niche’ on each side of the shared wall????
I know, right?! Some home decor ideas are so bizarre!
Your bathroom sounds horrible. I would call that torture… especially in the summer months!
Thanks for your suggestion Pat!
It’s worth trying to paint… with kilz first