Saturday, April 17, 2010

Window Pains!

I am painting this very large, very old, very crumbly window for a client. It will be a warm red when it's finished. The decorator is planning on hanging it above the sofa in the family room and also installing a mirror behind it.

There are 20 panes of glass in this window. After I took it out of my van and into my garage, I removed the moving plastic.


I didn't realize that the moving plastic was actually holding the panes of glass in! Many of them started to fall out!!! Luckily, none were broken. But, then I had the task of pointing and glazing the window before it could be painted.


I have glazed many windows in my lifetime. I thought those days were over when I moved into a new house and out of my old Victorian - I guess I was wrong... but all that experience will help here.



So, if you ever need to glaze a window for decorative purposes or maybe you have an older home and you need to repair those window panes... here's how:



First you need to scrap and brush away all the old paint and dry cracked glaze that you can.


You will need this spackling knife to do most of this work.



Next you need to secure the glass with these push points. They have little gripper arms that stick out to attach your spackling knife.


When you have your knife touching the point, steady it along the side center of the window pane and tap the end of your knife with a hammer. This pushes the point into the wood and the arms hold the glass in place.



Once you have all your points in, about 4 points per pane, you're ready to glaze.



Take a scoop of glaze out of the tub and roll it into a snake shape.



Lay it along the edge of the wood and press it onto the wood every inch or so to hold it in place.



With your spackling knife you will press down on the glaze at an angle, squishing the glace into the corner of the glass and wood.


Continue that all the way down to the end.



And you're done. Just wait for it to set up and then you can begin to paint.



I will follow up with a picture of the paint on this window. Right now I have the black primer on and I'm going to buy the red paint tomorrow. The red should look fantastic!

2 comments:

  1. That was a very good tutorial. I feel impowered now and I would definately attempt this in th future. I looooove old windows. They have such character. I so hope you post the window once you get it painted red.

    Take care,

    B

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  2. Wow what a beautiful window! You're ambitious to take on painting it, can't wait to see it done. Thanks for stopping by my blog and leaving a comment on my towel tags.

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