Unrelated to this post but related to this site: I am not impressed by the Stand For Marriage ads appearing on the home page. :(

It is rather funny (not funny ha-ha), an interior design blog would have these specific hateful and misleading ads.

As an Art Director in MAINE for an INTERIOR DESIGN magazine, this is an issue that directly affects myself and many of my friends and neighbors in a deep way.

Stand for marriage AND equality, not discrimination.
:(

I used to sell windows and doors and one of the things I never understood is why people would buy divided lite windows.

Yes, they are pretty from the exterior (even on some of the most boring tract homes) but from the inside they break up the view. Many of the homes I sold windows to had gorgeous views of the mountains or the desert scenery in Colorado's Western Slope and would try to discourage my homeowners from buying them. Even the more expensive true divided lites even though they would pad my commission.

Divided lites (or mullions) are very distracting and unattractive from the inside in my opinion. I guess that comes from a woman that grew up in the window biz and my childhood home took full advantage of the view we had of Pikes Peak.

They're great in a busy inner city location though where the view is less than perfect! I've always wanted doors with mullions but I didn't know what they were called til now. Thanks!

hmmm...Muntins :)

The previous owners have replaced all our windows with nice, big open ones that let in a lot of light. :) We do have 2 stained glass ones though on the side of the house- which is great, because if it was a big, open window there- we'd be looking at the neighbor's brick wall... Like TaniaTingel, I think they're great to cover up a not-s-pretty view!

Most windows look blank from the outside without any muntins (not mullions, those are the dividers between two different windows)- like eyes without pupils or something like that. There are a few exceptions to that though. I've also never understood the argument that it blocks the view. Most of us don't have a "view" to begin with and also how can something that's only 3/4" wide really block anything? I think they add texture and detail to both the outside and the inside of a house.

elissa is totally right. Muntinless windows are are ugly. The window has to be divided; otherwise it becomes a void in the wall. (I'm talking here about classical, traditional windows.)

I live on the lower East Side of New York; all the buildings here were built with muntined windows (c. 1890); now the replacement windows wreck the facades of these buildings.

Sigh.

There are places where they work, and where they are just ridiculous. I lived in a street of turn-of-the (19th) centery homes in DC on Capitol Hill, where the homes has been built with 4 panes; upper and lower panes were each split in half, making 4. Many replacements have been 6 or 8, and I just don't get it. These are beautiful streets and the extra mullions are actually not historically accurate.

I am so sick of all the tract homes with a zillion fake mullions, those cheap plastic bars that run between the double-paned windows. And even in the city, we have relatively new condo with views over much of the city and into Virginia, which would be much improved if the glass was uninterrupted floor to ceiling. Instead, there are fake mullions blocking views. We've tried painting them a very dark brown, and that's great--they disappear, especially at night, allowing the view to be the thing.

We built a house to fit in with the historic character of a small town in delaware, and our builder kept trying to get us to put in 6 or 8-pane windows. We resisted and are thankful. Love the unobstructed views on the quaint street, and I don't believe that extra window lights would have added anything to the character of the house. http://mysite.verizon.net/vzep4bhz/

I hope that the current over-use of fake mullions will die. In my mind, they don't help make the plain tract homes any more interesting; they are just frippery. (Can you tell I don't like them???) Small panes of glass were once necessary for cost reasons; but that is no longer the case.