Salvage Spotlight: Warehouse Windows Become a Storage Screen
Full of character but originally short on practicality, these panes in a Brooklyn loft now hide gear instead of leaking air
Designer Michael Stout and his roommates had a love-hate relationship with the original windows in their loft, in the East Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, New York. "I loved the variety and uniqueness of each pane, as well as the sense of history embedded in them," Stout says. So did location scouts; in addition to drawing retailers like Bloomingdale's and Urban Outfitters to shoot in the loft, the old windows provided a backdrop for magazine photo shoots for musicians, including Cat Power and The Rapture.
However, "one morning during the winter in 2002 I awoke after a major snowstorm and found 3 inches of snow inside all along the eastern side of our apartment," Stout says. Summer was no better. "Once during a heat wave, we called our downstairs neighbors to tell them our candles were melting. I couldn't even believe their response: Their records were actually melting!" he says. "We were really roughing it, but it was such a magical time of my life, graduating from college and moving to New York City." When it was time for the windows to be replaced with something more practical and energy efficient, he wanted to keep the panes he'd fallen in love with, and came up with a plan to reuse them.
"This is New York City, and storage is a luxury," he says. The loft had an inadequately screened-off area for stashing things like tools, cleaning supplies, linens and an air conditioning unit. Creating a large new screen out of the old panes and pairing it with shelves increased the storage. And wherever he takes it, the screen will always remind Stout of this important time in his life. "It was a way to preserve some of the aesthetic history of the building and everything that the windows symbolized to me during my first eight years in New York," he says.
Project at a Glance
What: A screen made of repurposed windows
Cost: $750, including a welding class
Time: 4 weeks
However, "one morning during the winter in 2002 I awoke after a major snowstorm and found 3 inches of snow inside all along the eastern side of our apartment," Stout says. Summer was no better. "Once during a heat wave, we called our downstairs neighbors to tell them our candles were melting. I couldn't even believe their response: Their records were actually melting!" he says. "We were really roughing it, but it was such a magical time of my life, graduating from college and moving to New York City." When it was time for the windows to be replaced with something more practical and energy efficient, he wanted to keep the panes he'd fallen in love with, and came up with a plan to reuse them.
"This is New York City, and storage is a luxury," he says. The loft had an inadequately screened-off area for stashing things like tools, cleaning supplies, linens and an air conditioning unit. Creating a large new screen out of the old panes and pairing it with shelves increased the storage. And wherever he takes it, the screen will always remind Stout of this important time in his life. "It was a way to preserve some of the aesthetic history of the building and everything that the windows symbolized to me during my first eight years in New York," he says.
Project at a Glance
What: A screen made of repurposed windows
Cost: $750, including a welding class
Time: 4 weeks
BEFORE: "There were three materials existing in the windows when I moved in: glass, Plexiglas and translucent chicken wire," Stout says. "There was a randomness to the way the individual panes had been replaced over the years; I took it as my canvas and replaced certain panes to open up particular views and get rid of any problem pieces. There were so many cracks and bullet holes in most of them, but I loved them all."
Stout had even chosen to highlight a favorite pane over the kitchen sink that caught the brilliant sunrises over a nearby park. "One of the translucent chicken wire pieces had beautiful bullet hole cracks," he says. "I loved the way the morning sun would capture and highlight this unique moment, so decided to frame it. I can't help but think now that the framed peephole on the door used on the set of Friends was in the back of my mind."
Here's a shot of the replacement work in action.
BEFORE: The look of the old storage area left something be desired. When Stout and his roommates moved in, the previous occupants had left a beat-up metal shelf with a black sheet hanging in front of it, which was not ample for concealing all of the things they wanted to store.
Stout designed a better system that used a construction platform for the frame and an L-shaped screen made up of some of his favorite panes. "It was a real battle to decide which ones stayed and which ones went," he says.
He started with this 6-foot-high multiuse scaffolding from Home Depot for $280.
Next he invested $250 in a welding techniques class at 3rd Ward so he could craft the screen himself. Transporting the screen back to the loft cost $150.
Stout also paid in sweat. "I didn't expect it to weigh so much! Even without the old panes placed back into the frame, it was a workout for two of us just getting it up the five steps in our loading dock to the freight elevator," he recalls.
Stout also paid in sweat. "I didn't expect it to weigh so much! Even without the old panes placed back into the frame, it was a workout for two of us just getting it up the five steps in our loading dock to the freight elevator," he recalls.
He placed salvaged 1-by-6 boards across the rungs of the scaffolding to create storage shelves.
The final expense was $70 for miscellaneous hardware and casters that allow them to roll the L-shaped screen around.
Stout rolls out the screen with ease. "Now we not only have more storage," he says, "but I also didn't expect it to become such a major conversation starter."
Here's a peek out from inside the newly defined storage area.
The new double-paned windows may not have all of the history and character of the old windows, but now the residents can actually run the air conditioner or heater without feeling like everything's going out the windows. "I like that they tried to respect the history by keeping similar dimensions to the windows," Stout says. However, the location scouts have been passing them by, he says: "They're looking for the old, authentic, weathered look."