A record of Hands-on “Stained Glass” Window

We had a totally distinct post planned for today, but then a especially lively/random project fell into our laps on Monday night. We were not sure how things would turn out (we were kinda making up a Hands-on technique as we went along), but to say that we are pleasantly surprised is a giant understatement. This might be my go-to under $10 project in the history of my life. And it could easily be repeated with any window you find at a thrift store, architectural salvage shop, or even at your local Habitat for Humanity ReStore. SAVE ALL THE VIVID OLD WINDOWS, FOLKS!

Or you could simply wander the streets hoping to be in the right place at the right time – because that is in fact how my tale of inheriting this window begins. If you follow me on Instagram Stories, you may have heard me gleefully tell The Fateful Tale Of The Old Diamond Window, wherein I randomly took a longer route on my evening walk and it resulted in me coming down our street about 10 minutes later than I typically do, and at that exact moment I bumped into our neighbors as they were loading an old diamond-paned window into their truck to take it to the dump. They looked up as I walked by and said “Hey Sherry! Do you want this old window? It is especially rotten so we were going to take it to the dump, but perhaps you can do something lively with it?!”

I hope you know how insane my face was when I essentially screamed into their faces “YES I WANT IT SO BAD THANK YOU QUITE MUCH!” and ran away clutching it and whispering “my precious.”

It is white on the other side, and the purple side above was the street facing side of the window, which is, in fact, extremely brittle and water damaged (some of the trim was missing and simply filled with caulk, the actual sides of the window trim were splintered and even missing, etc). So my first thought was that perhaps I could paint it with exterior paint and use it in the back garden – perhaps as some sort of cool trellis-alternative for something leafy to grow up.

Well, within a few minutes of excitedly chatting about some alternative possibilities yesterday, John & I concocted another plan (PIVOT!) which would mean it would not continue to get wet & rot outside… and, well, all of the pictures you are about to see were in fact taken THIS MORNING. That is right, we began (and wrapped up!) this project today. As in, simply hours ago. And I was too excited to share my other already-written post today, so I whipped up this one for ya.

As for our materials, all we used was our free secondhand window, two D-rings to hang it, about $9 in tissue paper, and a spray bottle full of water that we already had on hand. And within about two hours (by about 1pm today) we had turned this old window into something we are crazy about. I KNOW THIS PICTURE MAKES YOU WORRIED. It all worked out, even though this looks like a preschool project gone wrong.

This whole thing began because I hoped to find a way to use the diamond window INSIDE of the beach house, somewhere that we could see it more than having it tucked away in the backyard and somewhere that it would be protected from the elements so it would not eventually simply fall apart fully. And this spot across from the island ended up being ideal. You may remember that we had this large beachy print there before. We ENJOY this print – it is the ideal colors and is fairly affordable for a framed art piece this large, but I found a better spot for it AND it opened up that area right under the sconce for my piece de resistance: The Diamond Window Of My Dreams.

Because I know you like closure, here is a picture of where we moved that framed print. Looks so pleasant over by the dining table. The colors go so well with the old chippy blue door to the laundry room.

Heading back over to the sconce that now highlights The Window That I Would Marry If That Were Legal – we think it is the ideal spot because the window is thick and sticks off the wall a decent amount, so having a sconce that sticks out above it and shines down on it feels truly proportional and balanced. As soon as John held the window up in that spot yesterday I knew it would add some pleasant balance to the room. WINDOW DESTINY IS A REAL THING, FOLKS.

We were both glad with the idea of simply hanging the window as it was and calling it a day (well, sealing it with some clear Safecoat Acrylacq since that safely encapsulates old paint that might contain lead). Buuuuuut we both agreed that it might be lively to see if there was a way to bring in some color simply because it was feeling kinda white on white (white walls, white window, white cabinets & countertop in front of it, etc). That is when the idea to try to give it a Hands-on stained glass look emerged. I KNOW. UH OH. That sounds like it could go SPECTACULARLY WRONG. But we already have FIVE colorful real stained glass windows in this house (two going up the stairs, and three in the attic on the front and sides of the house), so it simply felt like another one would fit right in… if we could make it look good and not cheesy… (which was a big IF).

Ultimately we knew we had nothing to lose since glass can be scraped if you paint it or cover it with something you later hate. In fact we knew things like glass paint exist for these types of projects… but the craft store scene out here near the beach house is bleak. As in, the closest thing is about an hour’s drive away with an $18 toll. So we chose to improvise using a popular kids craft medium: tissue paper. I KNOW I CAN HEAR YOUR FEAR THROUGH THE COMPUTER BUT HAVE FAITH. Remember: nothing to lose. Tissue paper can go on… and it can peel right off if it looks like something a toddler made at the library and subsequently glued their hair to the paper.

We in fact already had some blue and mint tissue paper on hand for gift wrapping – and we darted out to the small local drugstore and grocery store after breakfast (THIS MORNING!) to grab whatever else we could find that thought might be lively… which ended up being some pink, violet, yellow, red, and white.

But before we could start messing around with the paper, we had to prep the window for hanging.

Prepping Your Window

John ended up having some heavy-duty D-rings that we screwed into the back of the window to make it straightforward to hang. If you do not have them, they are simply a few bucks at any hardware store. Make sure you are hanging them equidistant from the top of your frame, since this will make it easier to get it level on your wall. We also subbed out the screws that came with the D-rings with slightly longer ones for a stronger hold (simply make sure they will not poke through the front of your window).

We hung it using these drywall anchors, which are becoming our go-to anchors because you do not have to pre-drill a hole. You will obviously want to use a level and a measuring tape/yardstick to get it exactly where you want it on your wall. We made sure ours was centered on our sconce and the whole hanging part took under 10 minutes.

Once we “test hung” it to make sure we liked it, I spent about 30 minutes “tidying up” the glass. This meant scraping off some of the crusty paint around the edges that overlapped the glass. I like using a flat glass scraper like this and then I vacuumed up the flakes with our shop vac to dispose of it. I DID NOT SAND because there could be lead paint under the newer paint that could aerate and be breathed in (scraping could even stir up lead dust in some cases – mine were simply big paint flakes that remained on the glass – but we heavily encourage tons of care with lead).

After scraping both sides clean, I used white vinegar in a spray bottle to clean the glass itself (that is in fact how I like to clean glass and mirrors all over the house – so low-cost and it works!).

If we hoped it to look less rustic and old we could’ve done a lot more (scraping more, patching the wood with Bondo, repainting…) but we liked how it looked old and interesting. So at this point we were fairly much ready to get to tissue papering!

Oh, and I should point out that our chihuahua Burger was quite interested in posing throughout this project. Scroll through this post when you are done reading and count the cameos. He certainly thought he was supervising.

Applying Your Tissue Paper

We tried a few distinct application techniques using what we had on hand, but I will simply share what ended up working the best for us.

First, cut your tissue paper roughly to size. It does not need to be ideal and you certainly want some overlap so it is not too small for each window pane. You can also keep your tissue paper folded if you want to cut multiple pieces at once.

Next, spray the glass surface generously with water using a spray bottle. You do not want a puddle of water, but generally we found more water was better than less.

Next, place your tissue sheet on the glass, starting in the middle and gently smoothing it towards the edges. You can use your fingers to press it into the creases, but wet tissue paper is delicate, so take it slow. We tried pushing it into the corner with a straight edge (like a credit card) but it frequently tore the paper, so we found that simply using our fingers was best.

We experimented with multiple layers of tissue paper too (sometimes of distinct colors) to create distinct hues and varying opacities (the more sheets = the bolder the color). To add a second or third sheet, repeat the steps above. Spray over the existing tissue paper and press down your next sheet – first with a finger in the center, and then tap it down all around the rest of the pane.

You can see that our papers hung over the edges a lot, but as long as there is not too much excess – it is not at all visible from the front side.

Even though it looked kinda crazy from the back…

Oh and when you finish with your spraying & sticking technique – let it fully dry in that horizontal position. I think if we hung it while it was still wet it would have stuck to the wall and made a large mess. Only hang it once it has all dried and molded to the glass firmly.

NOTE: Obviously this method only works if you hang the window on the wall so you simply see the front because the back is butt ugly. Also, this project is less than 12 hours old, so we will update you on how well this water only technique holds up. Our tissue paper fully dried and molded itself into place without anything bubbling or shifting or coming loose. If things somehow change over time and unstick, my next attempt would be to mix Elmer’s Glue or Mod Podge with water and stick them on from behind with that concoction, which I have heard works but might result in more creases and obvious “this is tissue paper” evidence, hence the water-only first attempt.

Picking Your Colors & Pattern

Not only were we winging this technique, we were also making up the pattern and colors as we went along. So it is worth taking some time to simply test out what colors you can create using whatever tissue paper colors you have on hand. The photo below is of our “test board” where we were simply seeing what would happen when we combined distinct layers of distinct colors (the water spray method meant anything we did not like could quite easily be peeled off without much effort before it dried).

You can see a few of the lower colors we tested were more bold and primary than we preferred, and we noticed that the brighter colors looked a lot more veiny and uneven – especially when we layered white under them to try to mute them a bit from the front (FAIL!). So we quite happily peeled off the too-bold primary colors we did not enjoy, as well as the white + primary ones that looked all veiny and wrinkled in the bottom left. Then we rejoiced that the colors we liked the most tended to look the most like actual stained glass (the top ones).

All of that experimenting also taught us that layering the royal blue behind a few layers of lighter colors (like two mint sheets or two pink sheets) or putting a fire engine red square behind two sheets of the violet paper gave us interesting variations, which helped to create a more varied final look.

As for the pattern, we contemplated a especially symmetrical/traditional stained glass look at first. But whatever I doodled on my phone ended up looking more traditional than we hoped. So we ended up simply kinda making a random/organic pattern. In short putting a few down, holding the window up, and making judgement calls about where to put the next one and what color to make it.

We realized afterwards that the whole thing ended up looking quite Matt Crump-y. I enjoy this notebook of his so I am fully enamored to have a window version to call my own.

I am glad we chose to leave some of the pane totally empty, because I think the reflective glass surface itself is a big reason why it looks so fairly hanging in this room. It is constantly catching reflections from the various windows and doors in the space, meaning it nearly glimmers as you walk through the room. And it is old wavy glass. MY GO-TO.

Pictures cannot do it justice. Wish you could all come wash dishes at my sink and stare at it with heart eyes.

So again, I will keep you posted on how this Hands-on stained glass technique holds up over time, but for now we are feeling fairly plucky about what we were able to pull together in a few hours.

Oh and if you’d like to see some other affordable projects that we have tackled over the years, this Crafting & Art category has a lot of ideas for ya. The big home renos are lively, but nothing makes you feel all giddy and excited like a swift & straightforward project that in fact goes your way! They do exist!!!

P.S. Speaking of art, our sweet friend Jenny Komenda is now carrying two photos that we took & framed at the duplex in her print shop (Juniper Print Shop). They are available as digital downloads that you can print & frame yourself or as prints that you can order that come right to your door. We are so excited to see Enjoy and Station among all of her lovely prints!

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