I’ll be honest, I’ve never seen muntins like that unless they are quite old windows on an older house. Our house is almost 100 years old. We had those at one time and replaced the windows because they were inefficient. I honestly have never seen muntins that you can feel that are newer.
So here I sit in my nearly 100 year old home, in Ohio, with my fake decorative element windows.
My fake muntins are plastic strips that are on the outside of the window. Makes it hard to clean, but I have very large windows and they do look better with them. There are a couple of them missing, but I have never been able to find replacements. Perhaps because I didn’t know they had a name until this thread!
Ours are inside the windows too. I think the new energy efficient ones are like that if you want to maintain the style of the house.
The muntins marketed as simulated divided lights are actually quite real looking and they are energy efficient. They look real on both the interior and exterior. Snap in grills or the grills between glass are an atrocity. The problem with real divided lights now is that they have to be much wider than they were in old windows because of the energy requirements.
Andersen windows offers a bunch of possibilities (scroll to the bottom): https://www.andersenwindows.com/windows-and-doors/options-and-accessories/grilles/
No way would I squeegee a shower door daily, nor would I ever consider daily (or more often) cleaning kitchen appliances. Those “few seconds” all add up. I do admit to hosing the inside of the shower with the sprayer to get rid of soap splats because it is now a month (or more- keep stretching the time) between whole house cleaning.
Stainless doesn’t bother me as much since it has been so long since I worked in the metals environment of hospitals. Light is so much more cheerful than those dark colors now in vogue.
NO! to muntins. They were needed eons ago but are ridiculous to divide the view and clean. Practicality wins. IF muntins are considered they definitely belong btween the glass panes- a decoration that does not make cleaning difficult- besides, it is so easy to have corners not perfectly polished- more corners, more mess. I guess there are many used to colonial architecture and other old styles. I like the “form follows function” dictum. I like Pacific NW and Florida sensibilities- each suit the climate. Guess I’m just not into the old east coast styles.
Some openess is nice, such as kitchen/living room (or family room) when there are other public spaces separate from these. Some inlaws have a terribly designed house. Great room that is two stories high so sound travels to upper bedrooms and behind it to the master. Loft TV- noise. In current and last house you can see the family room TV from both the dinette and kitchen. We eat late- Jeopardy on the big TV while at the table…
My spanish style house has 3 large windows in the living room, with the top rounded. All have hurricane glass with the munitions built in. I think it fits the style of the house. I’m glad I learned the word”muntin.”
muntins
If you’re like my modernist architect friends and believe colonial revival is an abomination, then “no” to mutins. Obviously they aren’t practical.
If you’re like my old house friends, obsessed with restoration/renovation issues, then “yes” to mutins. Obviously they are the only appropriate choice for an antique or colonial revival home.
If you are me, you have expertly refurbished antique windows, with real muntins in the original part of your old house, and exact copies of those windows (with real mutins) in the new addition.
Now let’s talk about hand blown wavy window pane glass.
Mulliions are what is original in colonial houses where they structurally held individual glass panes.
Muntins are fake mullions that are for decorative use only. They can be external for the purpose of making window washing a real chore or put inside double pane glass which still distorts your view but makes window cleaning a tad less onerous.
I think I see why muntins are so divisive … some of you actually wash your windows!
My parents built a house back in the early 70s that I suppose would be classified as colonial revival. It was a funky house because of some of their design decisions, but worked well for our family. (Was hard to sell though.)
The back yard butted up to the first green of a golf course so the big picture window utilized mullions (thanks for the terminology clarification @gouf78). That decision played out correctly as we’d often get errant golf balls in our living room from time to time. Much easier to replace a small pane than an entire picture window.
So to get away from muntins and mullions…
How do you feel about windows/window coverings overall??? All my windows are without covering during the day except for some sheer curtains in two bedrooms (which need to be replaced). I have woven shades (?) - or nothing on all the other windows. The cost of window coverings can be atrocious and I prefer as much light as possible.
Also, skylights? I think the skylights of today are better than skylights from the 80’s or whenever they first became popular. We stayed at home that featured a few different skylights on vaulted ceilings that created the best indoor light and brightness! I could definitely enjoy more of that mid-century vibe in a home.
We have no heavy curtains anywhere. There are sheers downstairs, but they’re pulled back in the middle to be able to see out/in our windows. The kitchen and bathroom have light curtains.
Upstairs bedroom windows have metal miniblinds that can be open or closed as desired. We often open windows at night for free air conditioning in the summer and during the day for free heat in spring/fall. The default for the miniblinds is open, but sometimes one wants privacy or darkness in a bedroom.
We all love the great outdoors so being able to see out windows is important. When we go places where everything is closed up all the time (my MIL’s place) I’ve often wondered why people even have windows. To each their own, of course. We do us. Others are free to do them.
We have cellular shades and mini blinds mostly. Usually open but the sun can eat things if you aren’t careful. Bedroom has curtains for light control (I don’t care but H likes it dark).
We have a skylight in our hall because otherwise it would be really dark. Drove my mom nuts because she was always trying to turn off the light!
Can’t believe the price of window coverings.
I only have blinds on the bedroom windows. We have no neighbors to the back of the house. And the front has big trees that obstruct the view of my neighbors. I love it!
On my new construction home, we did Wood shutters on the front windows, bottom up/top down Roman shades for the Bedrooms and a decorative valance on my kitchen window. My wall of windows in the great room, no window coverings so we have the great view visible at all times. We are on a 5 acre lot so not too concerned with neighbors but I like to have the option of having the bedrooms dark which for me is conducive to a better sleep.
White cotton muslin curtains on pocket rods, and fancy period brass curtain holdbacks.
Since we are in the middle of nowhere without neighbors or public road in sight, no privacy issues. Some times of year I need to block the sun.
Returning to Muntins and mullions: they aren’t synonyms according to brick and batten dot com.
Muntins Are Wood Grids That Separate Glass
Mullions Join Separate Door and Window Frames
Back to window coverings discussion…
Just came back from Home Depot where I saw what apparently is the latest appliance color: Tuscan stainless. Which is basically brown!
https://www.homedepot.com/p/Samsung-28-cu-ft-4-Door-French-Door-Refrigerator-in-Fingerprint-Resistant-Tuscan-Stainless-RF28R7201DT/308944297?mtc=Shopping-VF-F_D29A-G-D29A-29_13_REFRIGERATION-Multi-NA-Feed-LIA-NA-NA-MajorAppl&cm_mmc=Shopping-VF-F_D29A-G-D29A-29_13_REFRIGERATION-Multi-NA-Feed-LIA-NA-NA-MajorAppl-71700000059090936-58700005416012894-92700049340207739&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI-LuQ_Niv6wIVmx-tBh2rVwhVEAQYASABEgLsuPD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds
We have plantation shutters on the windows, nothing on our window walls but stationary drapery panels on either side of them and stationary panels on either side of the long wall of windows in our bedroom. We keep the shutters open/folded back during the day as I don’t like to cut out any light. The window walls face private space so don’t need anything to close over them. I’m all for bringing in as much light as possible.
A lot of homes here have solar tubes instead of sky lights. I like both, but I’m hesitant to punch any holes in our roof which needs to be hermetically sealed against the scorching AZ sun. I know that, properly installed, the tubes/lights are not letting in any hot air, but still I hesitate. Also, the room I would most like to put a roof light in is below our solar panels, so that’s out. The kitchen is still a possibility, though, so maybe someday.
Until this thread, I always said window sash and 12 over 12 or 2 over 2, etc. and thought those wood strips were just part of the sash.
This may or may not be correct:
https://mgerwingarch.com/m-gerwing/2011/01/18/muntin-v-mullion-architects-glossary
At least one comment says it’s backwards.