A Window with a History

A few years ago when I was living in Virginia I was looking for an old window to use as a bed headboard. I found some windows at an antique store that we were told were from the original Washington National Airport, currently Reagan National. The windows were from the 1940s. I purchased two of these windows and took them back to our house in Virginia where they sat for a long while on our patio. These windows were a constant bone of contention between me and my husband. He hated those windows for a few reasons, first they smelled musty, and second they were covered in peeling lead paint. Two really good reasons, but I loved them and was determined to use them in our home, safely.

The first thing I did was research on how to strip off the lead paint. I knew I could not sand them because the lead would be in the dust and I could breath it. I ended up using a paint stripper, and with a paint respirator I safely stripped off the dangerous lead paint. Unfortunately, after stripping them the windows sat on the patio for a few years while we were living in temp housing in Texas trying to sell the house in Virginia.

Against my husbands misgivings I had the windows packed and moved to Texas. Before they were packed I realized that the glass was not going to stay in place and removed the glass from both windows before they were packed. When they made it to Texas I decided to only keep one of the windows and threw the second one away. Happy Husband!

The surviving window stripped and ready for polyurethane. 

Now, I had to decide what to do with the remaining window. I thought about painting it and using the pane sections for pictures. Or, maybe paint it, add some hooks, and hang it outside for beach towels.  Then I thought I would use it outside as part of a planter. So, this is what I did with a lot of help from my husband, surprisingly enough.

First, I measured between the handles at the bottom of the window, and bought a wood flower box that would fit in between the handles. I also bought some polyurethane to seal and waterproof the window, and some large bolts to attached the flower box to the window.

Wood flower box I bought at Lowes.

Next I put a coat of polyurethane on both sides of the window. I wanted to keep the original patina of the window, but protect it from the weather.

I added a coat of Poly to protect the raw wood from the weather.

My next step would have been to bolt the box to the window, but my husband analyzed my plan and realized that it wouldn't hold the box in place, and it would require drilling holes into an old window that may not be able to take it. So, after much thought we came up with a plan and went off to Home Depot to get our supplies. We bought a deck window box kit, 3 horseshoe clamps (the type that holds a pipe against a wall) and 3 heavy duty rafter hangers.

Here are our supplies, three large rafter hooks, 3 horseshoe clamps, 2 hooks from the deck flower box kit, and some screws to hold it all together.

Once we had the supplies My husband put the project together while I was swimming with my Grandson. I definitely got the better end of that deal, right?

First he used the hooks from the deck flower box kit and screwed them into the back lower section of the flower box. We used these hooks to hang the box onto the bottom of the window frame.

Hook screwed into the bottom of the flower box.

Both hooks are in place and attached to the window frame.

Because the box would have fallen forward with just the hooks on the bottom holding to the window, he put the horseshoe clamps at the top of the box and used them to hold it against the window frame. He put a felt pad on the inside of the clamp to protect the frame from the metal clamp.

The horseshoe clamp was padded, put around the frame and then screwed into the top back of the flower box.

All three horseshoe clamps are in place.

We decided to hang the window flower box on the fence behind the pool using the rafter hangers.

I picked English Ivy to plant in the flower box in hopes it will grow up, around, and through the window frame like a trellis.

The best part of this creation of ours is that it is not only a piece of history but, my Husband loves it!