Glass: More than just a pretty façade

There are a number of reasons to incorporate glass into your decorating plans. Glass has a lot going for it! Here are a few reasons to consider going with glass.

Transparency can do a lot to improve the appearance of a space. Going transparent fools the eye into believing that a space is larger than it is. The transparency of a material allows the viewer to “look through” a space. Objects are still objects, but you can reclaim the space (at least vicariously) that a transparent object takes up. Glass tables, walls, desks and other see-through items can really expand a space.

Glass allows the transmission of natural light. The human body literally craves natural light. Natural light helps regulate a person’s “body clock,” which is so important to health and well-being. Exposure to natural light helps regulate the body’s wake and sleep cycles, and the production of key hormones, chemicals and vitamins the body needs to stay healthy.

Another key benefit of glass in an interior design scheme is the regulation of sound. As it turns out, glass is a much better sound insulator than other common building materials. Wood, for example, is used commonly in both residential and commercial buildings. It’s used in structural components, walls, floors and doors. But wood isn’t a particularly good sound insulator. Sound penetrates wood relatively easily, which means that buildings require additional insulators to help dampen sound.

Controlling sound is important, whether you’re working with a residential or commercial space. While wood can reduce sound vibrations by something in the range of 15dB-20dB, a material like glass can reduce it by as much as 40dB – 45dB. That’s a huge difference!

Ironically, in a commercial space, glass provides better sound privacy than wood or drywall does. You can use specially formulated acoustical drywall, or add acoustic insulation, but that can add significant cost to a project, and may not produce measurably better results.

With a specialty paint like Glassprimer™ glass paint, you can also paint glass to change its appearance without changing its sound-cancelling properties. Glassprimer™ glass paint can be tinted to match virtually any major paint manufacturer’s paint palette, so you can safely and accurately incorporate it into your decorating plan.

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Photo Credit: Camelia TWU, via Flickr.com