Discover Windows / The Window as an Object

Sills, Reveals and the Small Ledge That Invites You

Depth is what separates an opening in a wall from a sheet of glass.

The reveal is the returning face of the wall between the outside and the glass, and its depth is the single most underrated variable in the whole subject. A deep reveal creates shade at the top, catches light on its inner faces and glows softly, and gives the opening a sense of being cut from something substantial. A flush opening in a thin wall gives you the view and nothing else. The same size hole in the same room can feel either quarried or stamped, and the difference is depth.

The sill is where this becomes personal. Give an opening a sill with any usable depth and it will immediately acquire objects: a small pot, a bowl, a stone brought back from somewhere, a glass that catches the light in the morning. Nobody is instructed to do this. It happens because a horizontal surface in good light is one of the most inviting conditions a house can offer, and because putting something there is a way of claiming the light.

Reveals also do quiet technical work for the eye. The graduated brightness from dark room to lit reveal to bright outside is far more comfortable to look at than a hard jump from wall to glare, which is one reason deep set openings feel restful and flush ones can feel harsh. The wall, in effect, is easing you into the outside rather than shoving you at it.