How To Paint A Window To Look Like Stained Glass

Old windows are always alluring. Not only exercise they accept an innate charm, but they tin can stir up fond memories of living in a farmhouse somewhere in Kansas – even if you've never set foot in Kansas in your life.

They besides brand for an incredible art project that can add a popular of color and coolness to any abode or yard. Mine ended up in my thou just because I really have no more than room in my home. Merely the stained glass projection tin wait equally as dazzling propped in front of a kitchen window as it can hanging on the side of a backyard archway.

What You Need

Old window
Sandpaper and scraper
Painter's tape (invest in the blue one already)
Glass cleaner and degreaser
Rags
Patience

Paint for window frame
Paint for window glass
Hanging hardware

old window for stained glass project

What You Do

Your first step is to somehow obtain an onetime window. Prying i off a farmhouse in Kansas is always an option, although you'll probably do better scouring shops that sell used building materials. Betcha Tucson'south Gersons has a few.

I lucked out by inheriting my old window from the Tucson Citizen prop room when the newspaper folded in 2009. Think they used to put in the background to make photos look like they were taken near a farmhouse in Kansas.

Putting the old window in the garage where you lot can ignore information technology for at least 9 years is an optional step. I finally dug out my old window for good during the concluding garage cleaning spree when I tidied upwards so well I had nowhere left to hide it.

Window Training

Sand and scrape the crappy old paint off the window frame.
Clean the glass panes with cleaner and degreaser.
Put painter'southward tape around the forepart and dorsum perimeters of every single pane.
Tape pieces of newspaper over the center areas of the glass if using spray paint for the frame.

Window Painting

Spray the pane wildly with paint.
Peel off painter's tape before frame paint fully dries.
Make sure panes are free of smudges.
Use glass pigment on the panes.
Add hanging hardware.
Hang in lawn.
Brand your boyfriend admire it at least three times on the commencement day and regularly thereafter.

Boosted Stained Glass Window Project Tips

Picking the frame paint: Select a paint with a hammered finished to help hide the multiple imperfections and wood chunk chinks old windows are known for. If yous desire to retain that mussed-up look, continue it alive by using contrasting pigment in the frame'due south chinks, dents and dings.

Rust-oleum is my spray paint of choice. I used flat blackness mixed with hammered bronze for the window frame.

Picking the glass pigment: I'm a big fan of Pebeo Vitrail paint, particularly the transparent paints for stained glass effects. Use a combination of at least three different colors in the same color family to add interest to the project.

All the Vitrail colors blow my mind. Well, except maybe the brown. My quondam window project mingled Turquoise, Apple Green and Green Gold.

Applying the drinking glass paint: Using a paint castor with glass paints can exist boring and leave brush marks. I prefer to use an eyedropper to blob or describe thick lines with the glass paint, and then mush with a sponge to comprehend all areas of the glass.

Hanging your stained drinking glass project: Propping it against a wall or low on the ground doesn't do justice to what you've only created. Hang or prop it somewhere at least heart-level where sun can polish through to reveal it's true beauty.

Besides opt for heavy-duty hardware. Those old windows are heavy!

My old window came with two eye-hooks embedded in the top corners of the frame and a quadrupled-up piece of moving picture wire looped through them. It'southward hanging on a metal archway where the sun filters through in late morning time, so my boyfriend can admire it every single day.

Promise your one-time window project comes out just equally great!

old window stained glass project