Lookin for ways to spruce up some old fashioned sidelights

ChuckHouse

Hey all. Just found this forum and I love it. I look forward to coming here often.

For my first post, I am going to ask for some advice on a problem thats been buggin me since we bought our 1st house (fixer upper) in September.
On either side of our front door is some old, sort of ugly 50's style glass block sidelights(the house was built in 1951). They are securely built into the house and removing them is definitely not in the budget.

I was wondering if any of you guys have any ideas as to what we can do to make them look decent? (ie trim, paint, bulldozer????lol)

I have attached three pictures; an interior view, an exterior view and the interior view that i crudely drew trim on with ms paint. I am looking for any and all advice. The previous owner was very careless while painting around the front entryway so there is paint on the blocks but that will come off with a little elbow grease.
Thanks a lot for the help. I will keep you updated with pics

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240sx4u

The trim idea would look better. The thing is, if you cover them up you will lose a lot of light in that entryway area. If I really wanted to get rid of it I would just sledgehammer it out and frame it all back in. Cover with drywall etc.. and no more ugly sidelights. I don't mind how they look from the outside at all honestly. The interior needs some dressup though.

eokhuijzen

I like it from the outside. On the inside frame it with some fancy trim that has some depth. That will be more of the focul point then. Get rid of the white. paint it. It makes it stand out too much and makes the windows the focul point of the wall

bobtheblindguy

What is that hanging on the outside ? a woven wood shade ? Or is that the paint? Couple of thing you can do depending how much work you want to do and what type of look your going for. For a traditional look get some sheer fabric and mount it with a rod pocket at the top and bottom. For more contempory look install a couple of white wood blinds there. Either one will look nice.

vicpet

I don't know what your style is but seriously if it were me... after seeing the gray slate color in your entryway and the dark wall color, I would trim it out with a dark gray slate color. This will make it look more like an accent color for the entry and make them look very contemporary. The slate color will look very nice with dark wall color because it will not contrast so much with the walls.