Muntins

The muntins of which I write are those vertical and horizontal thin little pieces of wood in a wooden window, or steel in a steel window, or plastic … etc., that traditionally hold in place the sheets of glass.  It is these thin little pieces, muntins, that the unenlightened homeowner nowadays thinks should be banished from all the windows in their new house.  Granted, muntins’ origins are from back in “ye olden days” (say pre-1900), when glass could only be manufactured in small pieces (i.e., panes) and thus were necessary to hold the glass in the window sashes.  Today we are able to manufacture sheets of glass in very large sizes, so practically speaking, muntins are no longer necessary.

But wait … as Socrates admonishes us, “To seek utility everywhere is unworthy of the free and noble.”  With that in mind, what non-utilitarian purpose might muntins serve?  Just this:  Muntins serve the important, if non-utilitarian purpose of maintaining the wall.  Without muntins, the room’s walls are interrupted by what are now perceived as large holes in the wall, thus destroying the comfortable feeling of enclosure that a room should have.  And if one does not feel a deep visceral sense of enclosure, one is left uncomfortable in one’s own home.

So if one wants lots of light in a house, or wishes to take in that spectacular view one paid a pretty premium for, by all means have widows as large as the heart desires, but don’t omit the muntins.  Don’t be confronted by a view through a hole in the wall, but instead enjoy the view through a diaphanously transparent section of wall, which is what muntins grant.  Of course, the proportions of the spaces between the mutins are also a matter of great importance, but proportions are a subject for another day.