Creating a recess in a wall below a window

[Arkytek]

I created a set of four windows in a balcony wall, looking out the back of the house.  Raising the roof of an intersecting wing behind that wall cut into two of those window, requiring them to not reach as far down the wall as the other two.  This is for a house we are building for ourselves, in two phases, making design changes as we go along.  My wife wants the illusion inside that this set of windows remains uniform across, with the fake lower parts of those shorter windows as mirrors, looking as nearly as possible like sections of the smaller stepped windows above them.  

 

I watched a video on how to fake an opening in a wall and thought I could apply it but then realized that my problem is different as I'm trying to modify a wall under the windows, i.e. to make it have a recess under each window, equal to the part that would be there (as in the adjacent windows) if the intersecting roof were not there.  I did create mirrors there but while I can create recesses for them in the actual wall, I have yet to come up with a way to do such a recess below a window in Home Designer Pro.

 

Thanks in advance,

 

Granville

[Arkytek]

A bit later it dawned on me that I forgot to post pictures to go with my question.  So sorry!

 

Here is the outside view:

Since I couldn't mull together four windows in HDPro I turned off all trim and snugged them up together and with the other two that are mulled together.  I created the casing with backsplash.

 

Here is the inside view. The lower "window" sections are mirrors.

As I said in my earlier post, my quest is to recess those mirror sections to more closely resemble the actual window panes above and in the full-height windows to the left in this image.  The added "muntins" like the casings I created with the back splash tool

[DavidJPotter]

Home Designer does not natively have that capability to show windows inwards without also showing them outwards, sorry. Your only work around would be to place one inch thick soffitson the outside and soffits on the inside carrying mirror as their material. The same is currently true for Chief Architect Premier.

 

DJP

[Rookie65]

I wonder if using a niche may work? Eliminate the casing and set the backing as the mirror. You can set the depth to what you need. Plus it doesn't go to the outside, so the exterior wouldn't be changed.

[Arkytek]

Thanks David and especially Rookie65.  I had thought about this some more, did another search and found a video on using the niche tool.  I used it to redo the smaller fake window section and agree it's better that the result I had had earlier.  Here's an image of that small one done that way, with the larger one still as before.

 

The process was very tedious but worked reasonably well I think.  I used soffits to create mullions and a center muntin to simulate the sash.  I also shrank the lower sash of the upper window to nil.  All that seems funky now is that remaining upper frame of the niche that sticks outward too much.  To get this just right I'd need to make my niche a wee bit deeper but at this stage I'm happy with this result. Now I need to get back to doing real work.

 

Thanks all!  --Granville

[y-g-m-n]

doing in computer model is one thing.

But how will you do in real life? as upper window need structure to rest on and will have nailing flange etc

maybe get an artist to just paint under the windows the look you desire?

 

 

[Rookie65]

My thought is since the niche will only be inset partially, the support framing could be installed on the flat edge, and the under window support could be plywood on top of those supports. The nailing flange would be installed to those studs on the outside and nothing would be seen on the inside since drywall and the mirror surface would fill in the inset area.

[Arkytek]

Rookie65 has the right idea.  Just as if I were stacking windows, I can create a shallow niche below a window, with supporting window framing behind the niche.  Also I'll mention that not all windows have mounting flanges.  We have a Victorian house in town, built in 1891, which certainly has no mounting flanges on any windows!