An article in the Stapleton newspaper, the 
<--click to see article
(September 2014 issue) features our newly decorated window wells. 
In 2012 we (Joan and Bill) moved 5 miles to Denver's new Stapleton neighborhood from Hilltop (where we lived for 40 years) to be closer to our daughters and their families, also Stapleton residents. In our former house, the basement was a traditional place that was not particularly well designed for everyday living. The basement in our new house, however, like many in Stapleton, is designed to be an integral part of the living space. The high ceilings in particular help dispel the undergroundness of the place. The windows, however, are not very helpful - the dreary gray concrete of the window wells is an instant reminder.
How to dress them up? If you google 'window well art,' you find several companies offering different scenes, printed on plastic, which can be inserted into a window well. They cost about $80. The selection, however, is pretty thin, and of course they cannot be customized in content. As described in the Front Porch article, we were inspired by a neighbor who had hired muralist Carol Tuttle to create three special scenes for window wells in their home. We hired Carol to dress up 4 of our window wells with scenes from the vicinity of our mountain cabin. Adding some items to the foreground turned the murals into dioramas. Lights make them visible night and day. Here are some pictures of our four window wells, in 3 rooms: 1. LIVING ROOM 
DETAIL OF #1. This depicts a summer scene, along the path leading from our cabin into the wilderness, with our grandchildren (l. to r.) Thalia Hoke, Zach Liptzin, Matilda Hoke, Clara Liptzin. Zippy the corgi is there, as is The Tomten (a favorite Scandanavian folk tale of our children). Keller Mountain is visible on the horizon. 
DETAILS of #1: left: Zippy the corgi and the grandchildren. right: note how Carol Tuttle incorporated the irregularities in the concrete in the texture of the aspen tree.  
DETAILS of #1: left: We added some real aspen tree trunks to the diorama. right: The Tomten, from the book by Astrid Lundgren.  
2.CRAFT/SEWING ROOM 
DETAILS of #2: Two murals in the craft/sewing room depict autumn and spring. The left hand window well shows our favorite beaver pond in autumn. The aspen leaves have turned golden. The beaver came from a Denver taxidermist who was retiring, and selling his stuff.  The right hand window well in the craft/sewing room shows a springtime view from The Bench*, one of our favorite spots, overlooking the ranch meadow, with horses grazing, and the high peaks of the Gore Range still blanketed in deep snow. *The Bench was dedicated in 1990 in honor of our dear friend (now departed), Prof. Esther Doyle. 
3. GUEST BEDROOM 
DETAIL of #3: left: sledding down the driveway in winter. right: a short-tailed weasel, in winter called an ermine.  
In 2016 Carol Tuttle returned to do two more window wells. She worked from pictures of Brockley, the verdant and pastoral farm in the West Country of England, where our friends Conny & Antony Ridge live (we four met in 1967 in New Haven), and where our family has visited many times over the decades. One mural shows the entry way to their house. 
THe other shows a summer view of their magnificent gardens. 
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