How Much Will A Custom Stained Glass Window Cost?

When you go to a stained glass artisan, don't expect to walk in and tell him/her you want a window put in your front door and then ask, "How much will it cost?" The artist will not give you a quote off the top of his/her head. There is a process to arriving at a price for a stained glass window.

When you know that you want a custom stained glass window, you should arrive at the stained glass studio with some facts and ideas before you ask a stained glass artisan for a price quote. The first thing you need to know is the exact measurement of the opening. The base price of a custom built stained glass piece begins with pricing based on square footage, and then per piece. Therefore, the more detailed the piece is, the more costly.

Each stained glass artisan has his/her own pricing scale. An example of just the basis of the quote would be a set rate per square foot plus an additional cost per piece in the pattern for a stained glass window constructed with lead came. A lower charge of the per square foot rate plus the per piece rate might be given for a stained glass window constructed with copper foil. But that's just the beginning.

If you don't know what design to settle on and you request full-size cartoons (patterns) to look at on your opening, the stained glass artisan might charge per cartoon to cover his/her extra time - especially if you decide not to have the stained glass window made.

The type of glass used in a stained glass window has bearing on the cost. For instance, red glass is more expensive than some other colors because gold is a metal used in making red glass. The brand Kokomo glass is generally more expensive than Spectrum glass. There is a variety of pricing among art glass.

Bevelled glass and bevel clusters (especially if they have to be custom made) are often far more expensive than stained glass. For an individual stained glass artisan to custom make bevel clusters, it requires a lengthy process. This would increase the quoted price for your custom stained glass window.

If you decide to have gems, glass globs or faceted jewels or rondels added to the design, these will increase the price of your custom stained glass window. Some gems are more expensive than others, and these add to the intricacy of the work to be done.

Other considerations in the overall cost of your stained glass window are installation and how it will be framed and whether or not the artisan will be responsible for framing and installation. The stained glass artisan may refer you to a framer or a carpenter if the artisan does not do the installation. Other costs include things like whether or not a storm window is included or if the stained glass piece will be sandwiched and weather-sealed between two pieces of glass.

It will help the stained glass artisan to know what type of glass to choose if you know whether or not you need glass that will provide total privacy. Is there anything that you would like to bring into the stained glass design like nature or flowers? Do you want colors or just clear textures? Do you like Prairie style or Art Nouvea?

When you have a design and the glass chosen and the finished size, your stained glass artisan will be able to give you a price on your beautiful custom stained glass window.

William Morris

March 24, 1834 – October 3, 1896

William Morris was an English artist of many passions. These passions included textile design, writing, socialism, and stained glass, among many others. He was part of the English Arts and Crafts Movement. Morris began attending Exeter College, Oxford, in 1852 where he met another undergraduate and eventually his life-long friend and collaborator Edward Burne-Jones.

Morris founded a design firm in 1861. One of his two partners in this firm was Edward Burne-Jones (the second partner was a poet and artist named Dante Gabriel Rossetti.) This firm influenced the designs in churches and homes into the early 20th century.

Although Morris was mainly a textile artist, his designs showed in churches and homes such as the “Red house” in Bexleyheath. This house was architecturally designed for him and included some of his designs such as ceiling paintings, walls hangings, and furniture paintings. This house also included wall paintings and stained – and painted glass by Burne-Jones.

In 1861, Morris was also a partner in founding the Morris, Marshall, Faulkner, & Co. firm. Other artists involved in the partnership were Rossetti, Burne-Jones, Ford Madox Brown and Philip Webb, also Charles Faulkner and Peter Paul Marshall. The main arts that the firm would undertake were metal work, carving, paper hangings, chintzes, carpets, and stained glass. The decoration of churches had always been a must by the firm.

Some of Morris’ stained glass included works done by Morris & Co. For example, “David’s Charge to Solomon” (1882), a stained glass window designed by Morris and Burne-Jones, in Trinity Church Boston, Massachusetts. They were also involved in the “Nativity” windows (1882), designed by Burne-Jones and executed by Morris & Co. in the Trinity Church Boston. And finally, there was also the “Worship of the Shepherds” window (1882) in Trinity Church Boston, also designed by Burne-Jones and executed by Morris & Co.

William Morris was a man of many great artistic talents. His firm Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co. began the new era in Western art. He has become an artist who has set the stage for many different art forms.

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Edward Burne-Jones

(August 28, 1833 – June 17, 1898)

Edward Burne-Jones was a British designer. He also had talents in painting, designing ceramic tiles, jewelry, tapestries, mosaics, book illustration, and stained glass.

He was involved in the rejuvenation of the tradition of stained glass art in England. Some of his stained glass works include the windows of St. Philip's Cathedral, Birmingham; St Martin's Church in Brampton, Cumbria; the church designed by Philip Webb, All Saints, Jesus Lane, Cambridge; and in Christ Church, Oxford.

Some of his stained and painted glass works included a cartoon for the “Daniel” window in St. Martin’s-on-the-Hill, Scarborough (1873); the “Nativity” windows in Trinity Church, Boston (1882); “The Worship of the Magi” window in the Trinity Church, Boston (1882); “The Worship of the Shepherds” window in the Trinity Church, Boston (1882); the “Nativity Scene” in St. Mary’s Church, Huish Episcopi, Somerset; “David” in St Michael and All Angels, Waterford, Hertfordshire (1872); “Mariam” in St Michael and All Angels, Waterford, Hertfordshire (1872); and finally “Christ as Salvator Mundi” in St Michael and All Angels, Waterford, Hertfordshire (1896).

Burne-Jones was one of the founding members of the firm Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co. Two major designs helped the firm gain its reputation in the late 1860’s: a royal project at St. James’s Palace, and the “green dining room” at the South Kensington Museum of 1867. These projects featured stained glass windows and panel figures by Edward Burne-Jones.

In 1871 Morris & Co. designed the windows at All Saints, these were designed by Burne-Jones. In 1875 Morris & Co. was reorganized and Burne-Jones continued to design with them. Burne-Jones designed stained glass windows in the Christ Church Cathedral and other buildings in Oxford.

Burne-Jones was so highly recognized and appreciated as an artist that upon his death in 1898, the Prince of Wales insisted a memorial service be held at Westminster Abbey. His talents and devotion must have been so recognized and honored.

Burne-Jones was involved in such movements as the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, the Aesthetic Movement, and the Arts and Crafts Movement.

Frank Lloyd Wright

(June 8, 1867 – April 9, 1959)

Frank Lloyd Wright had many great talents. He is well known for being an American architect, interior designer, writer, and educator. He also designed many things within his building designs, such as furniture and stained glass.

Several of his architectural design projects included churches and temples; many included his stained glass designs. During this time, the main use for stained glass was in church windows. He designed the Meeting house for the First Unitarian Society of Madison (Shorewood Hills in suburb of Madison, Wisconsin) in 1946. He also designed the Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church (Wauwatosa, Wisconsin) in 1956.

Somewhere between 1905 and 1908, Wright designed and constructed the Unity Temple (Oak Park, Illinois.) In order to reduce the noise from traffic, he did not design windows on the street-level. Instead, Wright designed the stained glass windows of the temple to be placed in the roof, to capture the natural light. He chose the colors for his stained glass (brown, green and yellow) in such a way to give the members of the Parish a sense of nature, as they were not able to look outside.

In the 1920’s, when the very first electric floor lamps began in America, Wright was one of the first architects to design and install custom-made electric light fittings. This included some of his spherical glass lampshade designs.

As the glass industry grew, Wright welcomed the new age into his career and designs. He found it fit well with his ideas of organic architecture.

In 1928, Wright wrote an essay about glass and referred to it as the mirrors of nature, for example, rivers, ponds, and lakes.

In his early use of glass, one of his projects included strings of panes of glass along whole walls to create light screens. He wanted to gain a balance of lightness and airiness of the glass and the walls. The most integral part of his career was his ability to combine simple geometric shapes to create intricate windows.

Due to his independence, Wright’s personal styles and concepts often changed. However they most often included “Modernism”, “Urbanism” and “Organic architecture.” Due to his attention to detail with Organic architecture and the nature of glass, stained glass was often an interest to him and was portrayed in his designs.

Famous Quote by Frank Lloyd Wright:

"The longer I live the more beautiful life becomes. If you foolishly ignore beauty, you will soon find yourself without it. Your life will be impoverished. But if you invest in beauty, it will remain with you all the days of your life."

Stained Glass Artist: Louis Comfort Tiffany

(February 18, 1848 – January 17, 1933)

Louis Comfort Tiffany was a decorative artist and best known for his work with stained glass. He was an American artist involved in the “Art Nouveau” and “Aesthetic” movements in the art industry.

Many of his designs included stained glass windows and lamps, glass mosaics, blown glass, metalwork, ceramics, enamels, and jewelry. Although Tiffany started off as a painter, his interest in glass art began in about 1875.

Tiffany worked at several glass houses from 1875 until about 1878. In 1879, he joined Candace Wheeler, Samuel Colman and Lockwood de Forest to form the Louis Comfort Tiffany company and the Association for American Artists.

In 1881, Tiffany did interior design jobs for several people. His most recognized design job came in 1882, when President Chester Alan Arthur requested his design services for the White House. He designed many of the rooms (the East Room, the Blue Room, the Red Room, the State Dining Room, and the Entrance Hall). He designed many features in the White House, and obviously added Tiffany glass to the gaslight fixtures. He also designed the windows and added the opalescent floor-to-ceiling glass screen in the Entrance Hall.

In 1885, the original Tiffany Glass Company split up and Tiffany established his own firm. The Tiffany Glass Company became incorporated and 1902 became known as Tiffany Studios.

Tiffany began making his own glass for his work pieces, as he wanted to use glass with the impurities left in. He used opalescent glass in many different colours and textures; this allowed him to create a unique style of glass works.

This technique was a brilliant comparison to the old form of coloured glass. The old technique to create coloured glass was to use colorless glass and paint on the colors. The First Presbyterian Church building of 1905 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania has a unique design to it, as some of it captures Tiffany windows with some use of painted glass.

In 1893, Tiffany invented the term “Favrile” (Old French word for handmade) with the first production of blown glass at his new glass factory. He then trademarked “Favrile” in 1984. Eventually he used this word to label all of his glass, enamel, and pottery.

Recent scholarships suggest that a team of female designers played a big role in the designing of many of the floral patterns on the famous Tiffany lamps we see today.

Louis Comfort Tiffany has played an integral role in the movement of stained glass. He has changed the techniques used and made the art more practical as a whole. Tiffany has set the foundation for the stained glass industry as we know it and astounded us with his talents in the art form.

Dove Panel

This stained glass dove panel was brought to me with about half of the pieces broken as the result of an unfortunate accident. Given the sentimental value of the piece, the owner wished to have it repaired as it was a wedding gift. It gives me great joy to see it in the completed, whole state.

Colourful Stained Glass Valance

The idea of this valance came to mind when we were getting nowhere with traditional ones. We took our idea on paper to Carol and she tweaked it in a way that just made it come to life. Absolutely perfect with great craftsmanship, and an all round great experience. Fred and Starr, London

July 2010 - Flower Medley

June 2010 Windows

Transom Project

A recent project included 7 transom windows for a new home in North London. It was a real thrill for me to work on this project. Hope you enjoy the photos.

For a free custom quote call Carol at 519-461-0004.

Testimonial from the McLean Family of Lucan

We were looking for help to create authentic pieces to go over our windows. Our house is a hundred plus years old so we wanted to go with a traditional yet creative panel. In one window we wanted to use our family crest as the focal point.



We were also able to incorporate some of the glass from the original window that was there. Carol suggested adding two Celtic knots to accent the design. It was exactly what we were looking for.



For the front window we didn't have an idea of what we wanted except it had to incorporate our house number. Through consultation we ended up with a design that perfectly suited the house.





We appreciated Carol's input as she helped us design pieces that will last for years to come. We love our stained glass. The colours and craftsmanship are wonderful.
Thanks Carol!

Andrew & Mary McLean