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Permanent window paint and other crazy ideas

Permanent window paint and other crazy ideas

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Permanent window paint and other crazy ideas

Permanent window paint and other crazy ideas

If something about the word “permanent” makes you nervous, then the thought of permanent window paint might make you downright queasy. Fear not, permanent window paint is an actual decorating solution that can have a lot of upside in the right situations.

Where you might want to use permanent window paint

Not too long ago, I was in a hotel room in the financial district of Toronto. The original building opened in 1914 as a bank. In 2006, a group of investors added a condominium tower, which wedges between the old building and its former neighbor. My room was in the original building. One of the windows had a great, close-up view of the new building, and nothing else.

The hotel used permanent window paint to disguise the unpleasant view from the window. The painted window still admitted light, but I didn’t have to look at the condo tower. More importantly, the people in the condo tower didn’t have to look at me!

Permanent window paint is a great solution for applications where you’d install frosted glass. The good part about permanent window paint is that it’s actually less expensive than true frosted glass. It’s also easy to apply. Because the permanent window paint is – well – permanent, there’s no need for ongoing paint maintenance. That’s an added bonus when the window is on the 8th floor!

Permanent window paint is an ideal solution for your bathroom, especially if the builder neglected to install a frosted glass window. It’s also a good solution for “pebbled” glass, which some builders substitute for frosted glass.

Pebbled glass is textured on one side. It’s virtually impossible to see out of a pebbled glass window. That might leave you with the (false) impression that it’s likewise impossible to see into a pebbled glass window. Unfortunately, the smooth side of a pebbled glass window can be pretty revealing. To ensure privacy with pebbled glass, paint the smooth side with permanent window paint. Problem solved!

If you’d like more information about permanent window paint, please visit the rest of our site. To place an order for Glassprimer™ glass paint, please visit our online store at http://www.glasspaint.com

Photo Credit: Duncan Rawlinson, via Flickr

Painting glass in your home!

Painting glass in your home!

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Painting glass in your home!

Painting glass in your home!

If you’ve never quite gotten the hang of painting, you might be uncomfortable with the idea of painting glass. A painting project basically has two parts: planning and execution. Believe it or not, the hardest part of painting is the planning! If you take some time to plan out your painting projects, you’ll be rewarded with really great results.

Painting glass is only part of the bigger strategy

One problem that people encounter with a painting project is that the end result doesn’t “fit” with the rest of the house. In some cases, a painting project doesn’t fit with the rest of the room. This is where some planning can really pay off. The designs you see in photo shoots have one really big advantage over your project. You never see the featured room in context with the rest of the house.

Unfortunately, when you take on a painting project of your own, people view the finished product in the context of your whole house. An updated room might look great by itself, but doesn’t work in the context of the rest of the space.

Enter the whole house palette. A whole house palette is a color strategy that determines a complementary color scheme for the entire house. As you move from room to room, you use one palette that complements the work you’ve already done. When you’re finished painting and decorating the entire house, the colors you’ve chosen travel easily from room to room. Each room looks great by itself and in the context of the rooms around it.

Painting glass can work into your whole house palette, even if the rest of the house uses paint from another manufacturer. That’s because we can tint Glassprimer™ glass paint to match the paint palette of any major paint manufacturer. Your painted glass will integrate seamlessly with your walls, ceilings, trim and floors, even if another company makes that paint.

If you’d like to know more about painting glass, or you’d like to place an order for glass paint, please visit our online store at http://www.glasspaint.com.

Photo Credit: Lorien Rezende, via Flickr

Putting back painted glass in your home or office

Back painted glass in your home or office

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Putting back painted glass in your home or office

Putting back painted glass in your home or office

Back painted glass is an easy solution for homes and offices. It’s easy to make, and can really improve the look and function of a space. Back painted glass offers real benefits when you use it in the kitchen or bathroom. It can also improve the function of an open office space that makes use of glass dividers.

Bathrooms are ideal for back painted glass backsplash

Without a doubt, the bathroomis the “wettest” room in the house. Unfortunately, bathrooms aren’t always constructed using materials that can stand up to constant exposure to water. One way to preserve the walls that get the most exposure to water is to laminate them with glass. Glass will definitely stand up to water. It’s easy to clean, and it’s more sanitary than porous, painted surfaces like drywall and plaster.

You can create an elegant backsplash by using a thin sheet of back painted glass. The painted side of the glass rests next to the wall, and the unpainted side of the glass becomes the “working” surface. The glass can get wet repeatedly. It stands up to soaps, cleaners and other substances that come in contact with the bathroom walls. Better still, back painted glass will stand up to the humidity. It will look beautiful year after year.

Back painted glass will offer the same advantages and the same performance in the kitchen – arguably the second wettest room in the house. Surfaces in the kitchen need to be cleaned and sanitized regularly. Like the bathroom, the walls in the kitchen are likely to get wet. Unlike the walls in the bathroom, the walls in the kitchen are likely to get splattered with food. Having an easy-to-clean surface that isn’t fazed by cleaners and sanitizers is essential!

In an office setting, back painted glass can help control light and provide privacy. It can also disguise an unpleasant view without completely eliminating transmissible light.

For more information about back painted glass, or to order glass paint, please visit our online store at http://www.glassprimer.com .

Photo Credit: Scott Lewis, via Flickr

Are you wondering how to paint glass?

Are you wondering how to paint glass?

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Are you wondering how to paint glass?

Are you wondering how to paint glass?

If you’ve never undertaken a glass painting project, you may not know how to paint glass. Painting glass isn’t difficult, and the results can be spectacular. Making your own painted glass is more economical than buying pre-painted glass. In addition, you can cut the glass to achieve a precision fit before you apply the paint.

Here’s how to paint glass

Surface preparation is the key to professional results. Fortunately, surface preparation for glass is minimal, and requires no special chemicals or tools. To prepare a glass surface for painting, you’ll need fine grit steel wool, alcohol and paper towels. The cheap, store-brand paper towels are actually the best choice. More expensive brands (even those that are supposed to be “lint-free”) tend to leave fibers behind. Once the glass surface is clean, you’re ready to paint.

You can apply paint to glass using virtually any painting tool. That includes brushes, rollers, sponges and paint sprayers. The best, most economical way to apply paint to glass is with a high-volume, low-pressure (HVLP) paint sprayer. These tools are available at any home improvement or hardware store. The biggest advantage they offer is even coverage using the least amount of paint.

Regardless of what application tools you use, the trick to getting professional results is to apply the paint in a thin coat and allow it to dry completely before you add the next coat. Generally, a coat of glass paint is dry to the touch within two hours of application, and ready for another coat in about 4 hours. Avoid handing a wet piece (or a drying piece) of glass. This will eliminate the possibility of damage to the drying paint.

One of the great things about glass paint is that if you make an error, you can remove the paint from the glass as long as you act quickly. You don’t have to move the paint entirely. You can remove the fault and repaint. The repaired paint will dry to the same color as the unrepaired section. This means that your repairs won’t show, once the paint is dry.

As you can see, painting glass is straightforward. Getting professional results is easy, even if you’ve never painted glass before. For more information about how to paint glass, or to order glass paint, please visit our online store at http://www.glasspaint.com .

Photo Credit: StainedGlassArtist, via Flickr.com

Glass painting solves decorating problems

Glass painting solves decorating problems

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Glass painting solves decorating problems

Glass painting solves decorating problems

Every home is unique, and has its own challenges. Despite this, you can find simple ways to solve decorating problems. Glass painting can help open a home, correct decorating mistakes and even correct flaws that affect your ability to enjoy your space.

Inevitably, homes reflect the design preferences that were in place when the home was built. These can include materials, design features, layouts, room sizes and more. Unless you’re willing to undertake a major remodeling, you’ll need to learn to work with some design features in your space. But that doesn’t mean you need to accept everything!

Glass painting can provide practical decorating solutions

For example, older homes commonly have paint that includes toxic metals like lead and mercury. In addition, they may contain leaded glass windows, which shed lead particles. Lead poses a health hazard to every person. The body absorbs lead readily, so limiting exposure is critical, regardless of how old you are!

Removing this kind of paint is difficult. One of the reasons these metals were added to paint was to improve the paint’s durability. Lead and mercury paints don’t tend to peel until they’re at the point of absolute failure. In addition, old paint formulations were often oil-based.

If you know that you have lead paint in your home, sometimes the best solution is to cover it. Keeping paint maintained can be a challenge, since newer water- and latex-based paints don’t tend to bond well to older oil-based paints. They also don’t provide acceptable encapsulation of lead paint .

One way to avoid constant paint maintenance is to cover the paint permanently with a thin glass laminate. The glass laminate prevents paint dust from becoming airborne. Glass painting enables you to add color to the walls while minimizing paint maintenance and immobilizing lead dust.

Lead management is only one example of the value of glass painting in your home. If you’d like more information about glass painting, or you’d like to place an order for glass paint, please visit our online store at http://www.glassprimer.com

Photo Credit: David Barnas, via Flickr.com