LEVANTE LIFESTYLE

MAKING YOUR HOME AN ORIGINAL WORK OF ART

You’ve bought your lovely new home in the sun, but as you look around your pristine urbanisation it occurs to you that the properties are a bit ‘uniform’. Or maybe you’ve bought a character-filled old “cortijo” in the countryside and want to enhance its appearance in a way which is a bit different.

A beautiful stained glass window is an ideal way to give any home a touch of originality, a thought which immediately takes us to Sparkle Stained Glass.

Sparkle Stained Glass specializes in creating individual bespoke stained glass windows for the discerning client. The range of designs is as limitless as the imagination, the range of glass colours and finishes available immense, and the Sparkle Stained Glass workmanship absolutely top quality.
There is an immense pleasure in having a home which stands out for its non-conformity thanks to a stunning piece of art which also happens to be a window. But that is not the only benefit of stained glass windows.

The windows in many new properties are quite large, sometimes much larger than necessary given the very bright sunshine we are lucky enough to have in this area for much of the year. It is lovely to have picture windows for the views they afford, but they can let in too much heat to a room in the warmer months. As a result, you may find you are running your air-conditioning an awful lot, not to mention the damage which strong sunlight can cause to your furniture, fixtures and paintings.
There is also the issue of privacy – you don’t always want all and sundry looking into your house at all times of the day and night, no matter how well you get on with your neighbours!

And while the windows in older properties in this part of the world are usually relatively small, with thick stone walls keeping rooms pretty cool during the long summers, there are still the privacy and sun damage issues.

If some or even part of a window - the top opening for instance - is stained glass, it’s amazing how much less heat comes through and how much is hidden from outside view. Yet another factor in favour of stained glass windows relates to security, as the lead around the glass makes them difficult to break through. But undoubtedly the best thing about stained glass windows is they always look fabulous.

When you sit indoors on a cloudy day, the slightest light still comes through, replicating the muted colours and patterns on tiled floors and walls and cheering up rooms. Obviously the effect is intensified greatly on a sunny day, as the colours explode jewel-like across surfaces and illuminate neutral colour schemes. But stained glass windows even work their magic at night, as the light from within a room emanates outwards, giving your home a magnificent, special and utterly unique glow.

Sparkle Stained Glass can create the perfect stained glass window for all types of properties. Clients can choose a traditional or modern design, or even plan their own composition with assistance from highly skilled craftsman John, who will adapt it to the medium of leaded art glass.

John trained in Norfolk under the tutelage of the esteemed Tim Foord, who right from the start was impressed with the quality of John’s workmanship, technical skills and creativity, and clients can be assured there is almost certainly no-one locally with his unique capabilities.

Some people veer towards the very traditional and rich ‘cathedralesque’ colours of time-honoured designs, while others prefer a more contemporary creation using the specialist glass available in a myriad of colours and effects: stained glass does not have to be old fashioned; it can be very funky and fun.

Sparkle Stained Glass sources the glass for its creations from a huge company in the United States which has outlets all over the world, and which offers the best choice and highest quality glass in Spain, and indeed Europe. Hand-made glass is always an option, but is often seen as superfluous after clients see the vast range of beautiful colours and textures of machine-made glass; one increasingly popular idea is to create a window using little or no colour, relying on the many different glass textures for the pattern.

As well as the infinite possibilities in terms of designs and colours, Sparkle Stained Glass windows can also be made to fit pretty much any size or shape, even the most unusual; in fact some of the first windows John made were two-side panels for the front of a canal barge, with the design of Isle of Man’s three legs of Man symbol.

Sparkle Stained Glass also caters to all budgets. Price essentially comes down to the number of individual pieces of glass used to create the window. Each piece has to be drawn, cut, edged and soldered separately, and the more work involved, the more expensive the piece.

This means for example that a metre square window made with four different coloured squares will be cheaper than a smaller window with 100 separate pieces of glass in the design.

The Sparkle Stained Glass business and workshop is situated in Lubrín, but John, Anita the designer, and window fitter and qualified carpenter Paul, are happy to visit clients at home to discuss their requirements. Sparkle Stained Glass also has an arrangement with double glazing firm Mediterranean Windows should clients require panels to be fitted into a double glazing unit.

The initial consultation covers design, colours, fitting, costs and schedule. One thing clients do need to bear in mind is that creating a piece of bespoke stained glass is not a project which can be rushed. It takes time to get everything exactly right, and it may possibly be a number of weeks from agreeing on the design to the actual fitting.

Also important to bear in mind is that a stained glass piece may not necessarily be a window. It could be a firescreen in a wooden frame, a wall panel, Christmas decorations or even a tealight holder.
Stained glass in whatever form is simply beautiful, and Sparkle Stained Glass is the natural choice to turn an idea into a stunning reality.

Sparkle Stained Glass
Lubrín
Tel:
662 414 339 anytime
950 461 602 (evenings only)