Take a good look at the middle three windows compared to the ones on either side. Yes, the upper level has a dropped ceiling that cuts the upper sash in half. I’ll tell you a secret—so do the middle windows, but you can’t see the ugliness! On the right, they either haven’t done any to hide the old construction, or new windows were brought back after the fact and they left the mess. On the far left, the contractor thought it would be a good idea to put white FRP on the end of the construction, but it warped over time and you still see a troubled ceiling. The window just to the left thought a shade would make it all look like it was occupied. The trouble with this solution is that it draws all the attention and looks worse over time.

So, what did we do? In all eight windows, the bottom sash is all glass so you can see right through them. Normally glass does two things when there is no light behind it. First, it reflects – you can see some clouds in the sky if you look close. The bottom sashes in the far right windows are reflecting trees in the central park so they look extra dark. Second, glass normally displays dark or black in color. The contractor on the far left two windows was close to having the correct solution.

The middle three windows have a painted flat black 1/8” piece of wood paneling tacked to the back of the entire upper sash. This allows some light to still penetrate your upper level via your lower sash, but hides the messy ceiling of your upper rooms. This solution provides a normal daytime black window look while maintaining its reflecting qualities (remember those clouds?). This simple cover will rarely be noticed by anyone on the street, so don’t expect lots of accolades right away. But it sure does clean up the look of your downtown in a hurry!
You can’t get more practical that this!!!