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Glass doors – inside and out

Glass doors – inside and out

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Glass doors – inside and out

Glass doors – inside and out

If you think that glass doors are reserved for commercial spaces, you may be overlooking a design trend that can transform your home. Framed and frameless glass doors are emerging as a hot design trend.

Frameless glass doors in a residential setting are most frequently found in bathrooms and showers. Frameless shower doors come in a variety of styles and can either slide open or pivot. If frameless glass appeals to you, but the transparency of the glass puts you off a bit, you can paint or frost the glass. Traditional frosted glass is made by chemical etching or sandblasting the surface of the glass. As an inexpensive alternative, you can paint the glass using Glassprimer™ glass paint. Using a frosted finish, you can approximate frosted glass for about $1 per square foot.

Glass doors used around the house can help transmit natural light throughout the space. Some rooms require privacy. In these cases, you can add curtains or use Glassprimer™ glass paint to obscure the view through the glass without interfering with the transmission of natural light.

Glass is extremely versatile in commercial spaces. It can be used effectively to divide an interior space without impacting the transmission of natural light. As an added benefit, glass is an excellent sound insulator. Using glass in the interior space can help control ambient noise in the workspace.

Adding color to glass is a snap with Glassprimer™ glass paint. Glassprimer™ glass paint can be tinted to match virtually any color in any major paint manufacturer’s paint palette. That means you can incorporate Glassprimer™ glass paint seamlessly into any decorating scheme.

Glassprimer™ glass paint is easy to work with, and is a certified low-VOC compound. In addition to its oil-based formulation, Glassprimer™ glass paint also comes in an environmentally friendly water-based formulation that’s safe to use and easy to clean up.

Glassprimer™ glass paint is a specialized glass coating that bonds permanently to glass surfaces. GlassPrimer also makes a glass surface molecular activator that is designed to work with UV-inkjet glass printing processes. Glassprimer™ glass paint can be used in both interior and exterior applications and can help reduce solar heat gain in some applications. For more information about Glassprimer™ glass paint, please visit the rest of our site. If you’d like to purchase Glassprimer™ glass paint, please visit our online store .

Photo Credit: Sint Katelinjne-Waver, via Flickr.com

Glass – the new luxury material

Glass – the new luxury material

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Glass – the new luxury material

Glass – the new luxury material

What do you do when you want to make the most of the square footage you’ve got, especially when your square footage happens to be in a high-demand area? Many designers are turning to glass to help them open up views and maximize space.

Disappearing glass walls – walls that fold neatly out of the way or tuck quietly into storage spaces – are becoming the norm in luxury developments. You can see a commercial example of the attraction of hideaway glass walls at the new San Francisco Apple store, where the store’s giant glass doors disappear during business hours.

Oceanfront, lakefront and even New York City property owners are going for glass to help bridge the distance between themselves and their preferred residential environments. Floor-to-ceiling doors that simply disappear into a pocket can really change the vibe of a building, but they require special structural considerations.

Glass is extremely heavy, and glass doors – or an entire glass wall – can weigh thousands of pounds. The rest of the structure must be carefully designed or reinforced to support a foldaway glass wall. The cost of such an addition is also not slight. The cost of a glass wall can exceed $125 per square foot, and that doesn’t include extra supports, motors and hardware to help move the doors into place.

Pocket doors – regardless of what they’re made from – require a lot of space, too. If you want to hide a door completely inside of a wall, you’ll need a wall space that’s at least double the size of the door opening.
Folding doors are less expensive and are more practical for most spaces. That’s because they require less space than glass pocket doors do, and they can be manufactured in more practical (read less custom) sizes.

Energy efficiency is also a consideration. Heat loss is the big concern in northern climates. Heat gain is the major consideration in climates that receive a lot of sun exposure. Using high efficiency glass can help reduce the energy loss or energy consumption related to the door.

Waterproofing is also a concern, since a wet door can do damage to the area around it, and can encourage the growth of mold and mildew in a space.

Glassprimer™ glass paint is a great way to control energy losses and prevent solar heat gain in glass installations. Glassprimer™ glass paint comes in virtually any color and creates a permanent bond with the glass surface. Its exceptional UV-resistance means that the paint will not chip, fade or peel even when exposed to direct sunlight.

If you’d like more information about Glassprimer™ glass paint, please visit the rest of our site. If you’d like to purchase Glassprimer™ glass paint, please visit our online store .

Photo Credit: Phillip Long, via Flickr.com