While renovating our laundry room, we made an exciting discovery! By vaulting the ceiling, we’d be able to restore the transom window between the kitchen and laundry room. The glass had been replaced with wood since it used to look into an insulation filled ceiling.
Luckily, we found the glass in a shed! So, now it was just a matter of cleaning up the glass. The more I thought about the window though, the more I became convinced that doing a faux stained glass to the transom would look beautiful.
DIY FAUX STAINED GLASS
Let’s start with the video tutorial so you get an overview on what I did. Then, I’ll dive in with more details below:
If the video doesn’t work here, you can watch it on YouTube here. P.s. I’m trying to build that page up, so if you’d subscribe, I’d really appreciate that!SUPPLIES
- Glass Paint. I used colors 16438, 14042, 16429, 16425, 16008, 17649
- Lead Adhesive Strips
- Glass
- Paint Brush
A note about the paint- I bought mine at Hobby Lobby for $3 a bottle. A few of the bottles I originally bought had metallic labels. Evidently, that meant the paint would be full of glitter. I do not like glitter so I wasn’t happy with that. Hopefully that tip is helpful. In the below picture, you can see the pink, blue and green have a metallic label and are the glitter ones. I later replaced those with the bottles above.
Step 1
Start by cleaning the glass really well with glass cleaner. Use a razor blade to remove any old paint on the window.
step 2
Next, open your adhesive lead strips and lay in a pattern on your glass. I free handed the design and just made it up as I went using these as inspiration:
Use scissors to cut the lead strips as you go.
step 3- WHAT NOT TO DO
And now, here’s how I messed up this project- don’t do this! The instructions on the bottle say to squeeze the paint right on the glass. I did that and ended up with an uneven and gloopey finish. I hoped it would even out when it dried- it didn’t. Worst than that, the paint was opaque- you couldn’t see through it. Sadly, I was disappointed by the result when it dried.
The good news is that, when dry, the paint came up with a razor blade.
step 4- how to pour the paint
Finally, here’s what you should actually do. First up, if you remove dried paint, you need to replace the lead strips. I didn’t do this and had some paint bleed through the lead strips. That resulted in a few bleeds and the only issues when the paint dried.
Second, you need to water down the paint. I used a bowl and diluted the paint- 1 part water to 4 parts paint. Mix paint and water as you go until you have a thinner consistency. Then, you can pour the watered down paint right into place. Use a paint brush to get the paint close to the lead strips.
By doing this method, you shouldn’t have any air bubbles (I had a bunch when I put the paint straight on the glass).
If you do get any paint on the lead strips, use a rad or paper towel to wipe it up.
step 5- attach the glass to the window frame
Since I was restoring an old window, I took a razor blade and scored the edges. Next, I removed the nails from the back and then pushed the wood out. Every window might be different though. Next, I painted the frame white.
To finish the insulation, I put the glass in the frame. Next, I used window glazing in a caulk gun to apply the glazing to the edges. I piped on the glazing nice and thick and then went back with a wet paper towel to clean up any excess. I let the glazing dry for a full 24 hours before reattaching the transom window.
after
I love having this happy spot of rainbow at the top of the door! It’s fun and unexpected with a modern take on stained glass.
FAQ
Drying time- as an FYI the glass paint takes a long time to dry. 8 hours if you water down the paint and 24 hours if you don’t. Sometimes I do DIY projects in a hurry, but you’re gong to want to let this completely dry before handling it. Note, the instructions say to not speed up drying time with a blow dryer or fan.
Colors dry darker- when you apply the paint, just know that the color you see isn’t what you’ll get. They will dry 3-5 shades darker. I wish it wasn’t this way because I loved the pastel look I had when the watered down paints were wet, but it is.
The texture you see is the texture you get- like I showed above, if the texture isn’t smooth when wet, it’ll dry the same. So just know when you’re painting that if you don’t like it know, it probably won’t get better (sorry).
Don’t shake the bottle- with glass paint, you don’t want to shake the bottle because this can add air bubbles. Which mades for an uneven texture when dried. Watering down the paint really helped me with air bubbles. Also, I found that the paint with glitter in it had more air bubbles (the dark green glitter was especially bad).
If you get an air bubble- just poke it with a pin to pop it. You can see the bad green air bubbles above. I didn’t have any air bubble issues when the paint was watered down.
The dried paint is removable- on glass only though. If you paint on plexiglass or styrene, it isn’t removable.
Alright- I’m sure helping this DIY faux stained glass tutorial is helpful! I couldn’t find instructions anywhere to get a smooth, transparent finish. Mine came out so beautifully the second time (besides a few tiny spots where I had bleeds because my lead strips had lost their stickiness in the paint removal process). But if you get the paint consistency right the first time, there shouldn’t be any issues. Let me know if you have any questions!
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