Reeded Glass Is Back!

They say everything comes back around eventually. In the world of glazing that rule appears no different. Reeded glass is very much back in fashion!

Reeded glass is back!

I have to admit when I first started to see Reeded glass appear I wasn’t too convinced. I was of the opinion that it was old-fashioned decades ago, and it still looks old-fashioned now.

That being said, after seeing it used in some installations, including one of our own the other week, I am starting to change my mind. This is Reeded glass in a window that we recently installed in a client’s home. Their Bathroom was decorated in a Gatsby-style era, with dark blues and White subway-style tiles. So the Reeded glass worked well with the entire decor:

Reeded glass was fitted into flush frames and the client was very happy with the end result. I went to go take photos of the installation and the effect was better than I expected. Although it is not as obscure as some of the other patterns, which will be a consideration for some when you remember that this will be mostly used in bathrooms.

I mentioned on Twitter that Reeded glass was making a comeback and Manchester-based The Window Co tweeted me this picture in response:

It does look nicer in Black than any other colour in my opinion. And it does look rather nice when it is used with aluminium internal doors. This is an image Origin have of their internal doors with Reeded glass:

IMAGE CREDIT: ORIGIN GLOBAL

There is something aesthetically pleasing about Reeded glass and Black frames. Perhaps it is the simplicity of the Reeded design with the classic colour that is Black. When it comes to design, it is said that simple is timeless, and both the colour Black and Reeded glass fit that bill.

Although I am coming around to the idea of Reeded becoming popular again, I can’t say that I am overly thrilled by it. It’s certainly insta-worthy at the moment, and makes for some good image-based social media posts. But I think the design is fairly limited and perhaps not the best choice for someone wanting high levels of privacy in their Bathroom or loo.

Fashion cycles

Reeded glass is a design from many decades ago. Indeed, one of my clients commented to me the other day they remember Reeded glass from her Aunties house in the 1970s where they had a serving hatch between the Kitchen and Dining areas. Serving hatches. Remember those?

So it got me wondering whether we will ever see less popular glazing options return to us in the years to come. Diamond leading has only fairly recently fallen out of favour. I remember when I first started selling windows and doors it was still in reasonable demand, although not massive. But in the years since we have seen it erode away further, to the point where we perhaps only sell diamond leading on a handful of jobs every year, and usually only to match existing windows in a house. Perhaps we’re a few decades away from diamond lead being popular again.

Mahogany frames were a wood grain choice from many moons ago before Rosewood became the darker wood grain of choice. So much so that many suppliers dropped Mahogany altogether. There are one or two that still supply it now but that number is vastly reduced compared to what it used to be. I was never a fan of the colour, to begin with, and the quality of the wood grain effect was poor. But, as we are seeing with Reeded glass, perhaps it only takes a few viral images on social media in a couple of decades’ time and customers might want to see it available once again.

I’m not sure I want to see either diamond leading or Mahogany PVCu make a comeback any time soon. Our industry has made good progress on developing our product range into a much more modern and better quality suite of options. A return to either of these would only remind me of how things were and how we need to make sure we keep taking steps forward. Like PVCu panelled doors. I for one am glad to see the back of them. The composite door market wiped most of that out, and is now only a small percentage of the overall door market. They took could make a comeback in a couple of decades time, but I think that is a particular product that has had it’s day and is unlikely to return in any meaningful way.

You never know, by the time we get to 2050 conservatories might be popular again. Well, maybe not.

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