Don't Store Glassware On A Windowsill - It Can Be A Major Fire Hazard

You can find tons of stained glass suncatchers on crafty sites like Etsy; this type of art has been practiced since the Middle Ages to draw color out of nothing but natural light, and suncatchers make for a great piece of DIY home decor that you and your family can tackle. However, you will want to be careful about keeping glassware around your windowsill. Refraction, a process by which the direction light travels is changed when moving from one medium to another (in this case from air to glass), can concentrate beams of light into spots with exponential increases of directed heat. Think about the ways in which materials such as sugar can be burned with a magnifying glass and you'll understand why one poorly placed piece of glassware can become a major fire hazard.

The space around your window is going to be a proverbial hotbed for potential fires, including the ways in which curtains might trap heat by blocking a radiator or floorboard heaters. The magnified light refracting off glassware on a windowsill can heat individual spots on curtains (not to mention targets like a loose piece of paper sitting nearby). However, this isn't the only way that light-catching glassware can damage your home. Plastic-based building materials like vinyl sidings are especially vulnerable to higher levels of heat incurred by focused beams of sunlight, in particular darker-colored surfaces that absorb more heat. Around 2,000 incidents of vinyl sidings being softened and distorted by refracted sunlight were counted over a 10-year period within an informal survey, as reported in a 2014 paper by the National Association of Home Builders.

One obvious solution to the concern of potential fires or home damage due to glassware on windowsills is to simply not keep glass items anywhere that light could be refracted. However, this does present qualms when considering the kinds of suncatchers or glass vases you might want to sit somewhere that can still filter light. Choosing the right window to keep your glassware nearby can help; as conventional wisdom has it, our Sun rises in the east and sets in the west, and thus windows on either of these sides will receive more direct sunlight. North-facing windows especially will be softer throughout the day (though you will still want to be careful), or you can invite the feeling of natural light into your home with an LED hack that creates faux windows.

The length of light exposure is also an important consideration when planning your interior design with glassware items. Refracted light can catch items like paper unexpectedly fast, but softening damage to things like vinyl siding will take longer exposures. If you're planning to take a trip over summer months, when things are hottest in the Northern Hemisphere, closing any blinds before you leave can prevent an abundance of sunlight from coming in — which is particularly useful if the blinds are closer to the window than any glassware you might want on display. Ultimately, there are always going to be vintage pieces of glass that you'll want to snag from a thrift store. Just be safe about the ways in which you display these pieces at home.