Installing a Transom

Back in the day, old houses had transoms which are windows above doors. These were often in every doorway in the house and the transom could open out. This allowed for air ventilation. Transoms look aesthetically pleasing and bring more light into a room.

David proposed that we put a transom above our front door. He was sure that there used to be one, since all of our neighbors have them, but we had different ways to go about creating the transom.

Transom underneath the drywall.

Other houses on our block have vestibules. Basically, it's a little “mud room” as you enter the house where you can remove your boots and coat. Then you open another door and need to take a step up to enter the living room.  Our house was originally built with a vestibule, but it was removed at some point. Now, you have to take a step up to enter the living room directly from the porch. Because our door is raised above the porch, the space above our door that would allow for the transom is smaller than our neighbors. 

Our options for the creating the transom were:

1. Leave the living room and door as is and have a small transom.
2. Create a vestibule and lower the door so we can install a higher transom like the house used to  have.
3. Lower the door so we can install a higher transom, but do not create a vestibule

I don’t like the idea of having a vestibule, because although it is what the house historically had, it would take up some space in our already modest sized living room. We could lower the door, but then without a vestibule, we would just have a section of our living room that is lower than the rest.  I don’t like this idea either as it just seems unnecessary to me.

For now, we decided on option one; we created a smaller transom. Our transom is 7 inches high, as opposed to our neighbors which have transoms that are about one foot high. Lowering the entrance is something we will have to re-visit again when we attempt to refinish the original floors. The flooring by where the entrance is will be lower and it would be difficult to replace and make it level with the rest of the floor.

7 inch high transom. 

Eventually, we want to put stained glass in, but we can't find one the is the right size for our smaller transom. They are pretty expensive as well. Most antique stores sell stained glass transoms from $250 and up. Also, a lot of ones we have found have house numbers on them, so they wouldn't be practical. A custom made stained glass transom would be even more expensive.

Since there used to be a transom above the door, it wasn't very difficult to turn it back into a transom. David made a hole in the wall above the door. There was no insulation inside and it was essentially an empty box that was just covered with drywall on the inside of the house and a piece of plywood on the outside of the house. David straighten the box to make it level and then installed a stop to hold the glass in place. David cut the glass from an old frame to the size of the hole. He put the glass up in the box above the door but it wasn't fastened yet and it ended up falling and breaking over his head! Scary. Luckily it didn't hurt him. The mishaps of home renovation...

We decided to just purchase a new piece of glass from a hardware store down the street. It only cost $4 and they cut it to the size we needed.  The glass was cut an eighth of an inch short so silicone could be added to make sure the window was air tight in order to prevent drafts. The silicone allows the wood to contract a bit so that it won't crack the glass.

David researched different ways to add house numbers on the transom. To purchase custom gold leaf numbers it would cost at least $40 per digit. The installation would need to be done by a restoration specialist, adding to the cost. David decided to just add the numbers himself with a very simple method. He printed the numbers in a black outline and colored them in with a gold paint pen that cost $5 at an art store.

Numbers printed out.

He then used Elmer's glue to attached them to the glass. I would have never thought that Elmer's glue would work as an adhesive on glass, but apparently it did! And, it has held up for two years.

Adding Numbers to the glass.

Inside view.

He had to replace the door trim since now it needed to extend around the transom as well. I will discuss replacing the trim a little more in a later post.

He painted the box to finish the outside.

Adding the transom was one of those projects that wasn't very difficult but adds a lot to the living room and the outside of the house. Like many projects we do in our house, the glass will not be a permanent fixture, but rather a placeholder until we decide to upgrade it to a stained glass window. For now, we're content with our inexpensive glass transom.

We often get this cool shadow of the numbers on our ceiling.

Here's what the finished product looks like on the inside and outside.