The Best Uses for a Bay Window

The bay window is a blessing and a curse. If you have one, you might not know what to do with it. If you don’t have one, you dream of all the things you could do with it.

No matter which group you fall into, these ideas for either utilizing a bay window or adding one can help.

Bay windows — or bow windows, as they are called when they’re more rounded, as on this building — date back to medieval times. In those days a small bump-out was often used as a chapel or altar.

They caught on in Britain in Victorian-style architecture and were adopted into American buildings in the late 1800s, where they proved popular on the West Coast. A bay window is probably one of the first things you think of when you picture a house in San Francisco.

The added floor space and light make bay windows an attractive home feature. But figuring out how to get the most out of one can be a challenge. One of the most common uses is with a window seat. Here an antique table in front of the seat provides a place for a game, but the height hinders its use for dining.

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The Best Uses for a Bay Window