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Cool SOHO back painted glass idea

Cool SOHO back painted glass idea

Cool SOHO back painted glass idea

Cool SOHO back painted glass idea

Sometimes an idea is just too good to pass up. I think this is one of them. Whether you work in an office, or at home, here’s something you may find useful – a back painted glass whiteboard.

If you make regular use of a whiteboard – in your home office or in a conference room – you know what happens. The dry erase marker doesn’t get erased immediately, and it leaves marker residue behind. Over time, the residue builds up. Sometimes special whiteboard solvents will remove the marker. Eventually, the board gets dented or scratched, or someone uses a permanent marker on it. Goodbye, whiteboard! (And whiteboards are not cheap.)

Back painted glass makes a great whiteboard

Here’s an easy, economical substitute for a whiteboard. The best part is that it will last longer, clean up better and cost less than the white boards you find in the store.

Take a sheet of ordinary float glass and cut it to your preferred size. Float glass does come in standard sizes, so if a standard size will work, you can skip the cutting altogether. The glass shop can also buff the edges of the glass to remove any sharp sides or corners. If you’re worried about breakage, you can also use tempered glass.

Paint one side of the glass with Glassprimer™ glass paint. Use any color you like, but a shade of white may work best for this application. Add as many coats as needed to achieve your desired opacity.

Once the paint is dry, you can apply the glass to a wall using any common neutral-cure silicone adhesive. The adhesive will not show through the paint, and is strong enough to hold the glass in place.

Ta-da! You have a permanent whiteboard that will not dent, or accumulate dry erase marker ink. You no longer need to use any special solvents to remove the dry erase ink. That’s because glass is impervious. The ink cannot not stain the board because the glass won’t absorb it.

If you’d like more information about back painted glass, or would like to order glass paint, please visit our online store at http://www.glasspaint.com.

Photo Credit: Rae Allen, via Flickr

Putting back painted glass in your home or office

Back painted glass in your home or office

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?

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

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

Painted glass or stained glass?

Painted glass or stained glass?

Painted glass or stained glass?

Painted glass or stained glass?

If you’ve paid attention to the stained glass industry, you know that there’s a significant controversy that’s arising around stained glass. Stained glass has been used for decorative purposes since the Middle Ages. The “stained” portion of stained glass relies on the inclusion and melting of heavy metals to create the intense colors that stained glass is known for.

Heavy metals are toxic. They include mercury, lead, arsenic, cadmium, chromium and a host of others that are equally bad. The conventional wisdom says that once encased in glass, the metals are harmless. Generally, that’s true, but traditional stained glass production methods mean that stained glass can still pose a danger to human health.

For example, the metal that separates stained glass segments is traditionally (but not always) made of lead. Louis Comfort Tiffany’s stained glass work stands out in part because he did not use lead in many of his works. (He used copper, especially on his lamp shades.)

The lead strips that hold the stained glass in place are an ongoing source of lead dust. The metal sloughs off lead particles, which can then become airborne. For this reason, many people with lead glass windows in their homes have elected to remove and replace the windows, or encase them to reduce their exposure to lead. Production problems in the stained glass industry are also calling into question the long-term availability of stained glass.

Painted glass is emerging as a substitute for traditional stained glass. Many well known “stained glass” works are actually painted! . Painted glass has a different effect, but offers a similar artistic experience. Painted glass has the benefit of not being toxic to handle or produce, and not emitting toxic particles following manufacture and installation.

Painted glass is emerging as a viable substitute for stained glass. Under proper conservation, painted glass can last for hundreds of years.

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: Ninniane , via Flickr.com