Bay Windows for an All Round View

There is something about bay windows that you just do not get with any other configuration of domestic glazing. It was once said that great architecture lets the world into your home: that a really good piece of building design will make the occupants of that building feel that they are as much a part of the natural world outside, as they are of the domestic world inside the walls. The bay window achieves this with superlative ease, making it the ideal first choice for every glazing solution in every home.

A bay allows you to be sitting inside your home, but to be surrounded on three of your four sides by the outside world. The effect is a little like sitting on the prow or stern of a ship. When you have bay windows in your home, the world is all around you – and you feel as though you are sitting in those wide open spaces, even though you are completely protected and warm.

The bay is the perfect place for a little nook, or some kind of seating arrangement that allows you to really relax, to read and watch the world go by in total comfort. You can arrange your bay with wraparound window seats, or you could use it to install a little book case and a comfortable arm chair. However you use it, the effect is the same: total comfort and seclusion, in your little hideaway halfway between the world outside and the rest of your home.

Bay windows are where the world and your home meet: where the transition from inside to outside takes place. In this sense they make the bay nook or area a little like a conservatory. The difference in effect between a bay and a conservatory is more to do with the interior than the exterior: a bay tends to feel more comfortable, more a part of a genuinely warm and cosy lounge. Conservatories, because they are made entirely or mostly of glass, and because they tend to be stuck onto the house like something of an after thought, can feel cold at night, or just a bit cut off from the rest of the home.

Bay windows, on the other hand, give you a real, usable outside space right in the heart of your home’s most comfortable places: the lounge area, which is usually the place most associated with warmth and light and relaxation. Indeed, conservatories are often used as an alternative to bays where there are no bay nooks in place – and overall, in a straight contest for interior warmth and comfort, the bay wins every time. There is simply nothing to match it: enjoying the beauty of the outside, in the absolute comfort of the inside. Bay windows are the oldest and best UK solution to the problem of bringing some nature directly into the home – they look better than anything else, they are more comfortable and they work in every situation.