Glass panel on the wall: how to make and properly hang

Gusevsky Andrey Anatolyevich

The glass panel will look great in any fashionable interior.

In the age of high technology, more and more people prefer cutting-edge designs using glass, plastic and metal. It concerns not only decoration or furniture, decorative elements can also be made of these materials, but often they are very expensive.

In this article, we will tell you how to make an original glass panel on the wall of a kitchen or any other room in your house with your own hands, and you will see that there is nothing complicated or intricate in their manufacture.

Varieties of glass panels

Glass panels can be hung in almost any room

It is believed that glass is a very fragile material, of which only windows and utensils are made. In fact, this is far from the case, and the panels on the glass wall are very durable, and most importantly, safe.

There are a lot of manufacturing options, but we will tell you about the three simplest methods that you will probably get, even if you have never done such a job before. So, let's look at each method in more detail.

Method one: the film screamed

We see an example of a glass panel made with a self-adhesive film, with a vivid image

Oracal is a self-adhesive film having high adhesion with any materials. By the way, aprons for the kitchen are made in this way.

First of all, you choose a picture or photo. You can find many options in hobby shops, and if you don’t like anything from their assortment, you can print an individual image on the oracle. The price of such a panel, of course, will be higher, but then you will get a truly original image.

You can order printing on the Oracle in any printing house or studio engaged in large-format photo printing. Their designers will independently stretch your image to the required sizes and transfer it to the film.

It’s not difficult to stick oracal on glass, but you need to know a few secrets that will help to do the job with the highest quality:

• Do not remove all protective film immediately.. This should be done gradually. First, release one edge, glue it, and gradually removing the film, smooth the pattern with a soft rag or a special felt squeegee.
• Carefully expel all air bubbles at the gluing stage, since removing them later will be much more difficult. If you see that a bubble has appeared, slightly peel off the film and expel it, then return the canvas to its place.
• If it was not possible to get rid of all the bubbles, just pierce them with a needle, and smooth out this place with a squeegee. There will be no trace of unevenness.
• Do not use glass thinner than 4 millimeters. It will be too fragile and easily damaged, especially if you decide to make a kitchen apron yourself.

Important! In order to make the film more even, apply a little water to the glass before gluing.After gluing, it will dry and leave no residue, but it will greatly simplify the process of applying the film.

That's all, our glass photo wall panel is ready. Apparently, there is nothing complicated here, although before you get down to business, it is better to practice a little in small pieces.

Although, if you at least once yourself pasted a protective film on the screen of your smartphone, then you definitely will not have problems with the manufacture of such a panel.

The second method: triplex panels

We see a glass panel depicting in several parts

Triplex is a three-layer glass that is used for the manufacture of automotive windows. Its main advantages are durability and safety. When breaking such a glass, it does not shatter into fragments, but only becomes covered by a network of small cracks.

This is achieved due to the fact that a special film is placed between the two glasses, after which the whole structure is baked in a special oven at high temperature. As a result, all layers are sintered and the same triplex is obtained.

Of course, making it at home is unrealistic, but we are not talking about full triplex, but about imitation. We have only the number of layers in common.

The bottom line is to place your chosen picture or photograph between the two glasses. The manufacturing technology to the limit is simple: we clean the glass from contaminants, place the selected image between them and glue the edges with a special colorless glue. Everything, photopanel on the wall of glass is ready.

Another interesting solution for home creativity is modular triplex paintings. The technology is the same, only the image is applied not on one glass, but on several segments of different sizes.

The result is a solid pattern consisting of several parts. By the way, later such panels can be highlighted using an LED strip, which is placed under the picture. This work looks very stylish and interesting, and besides, it can serve as a night lamp or an additional source of light in the house.

Important! After you cut the glass, be sure to carefully process their edges to avoid cuts. This is done using a special tool, which can be purchased at any store for a hobby.

The third method: imitation of stained glass

We see the process of creating a glass panel imitating antique stained-glass windows

A true stained glass window is a complex structure consisting of many multicolored glasses of different sizes glued together. In the old days, they were made not out of a whim, but because there was no technology that allowed them to blow large glass.

Artists collected one stained glass window for several years, but we are not ready to spend so much time on it, and modern technologies make it possible to produce such a reliable simulation that it is possible to distinguish it from the original only upon closer examination. Everything you need to make a stained-glass window can also be purchased at a hobby store.

For the manufacture we need:

• Glass itself. Again, it is better to take the thickness of at least 4 millimeters to make the product durable and safe.
• Colorless glue to draw borders between the colorful parts of our stained glass window. By the way, you can also choose gold or silver glue, then the stained-glass window will look even more original.
• Stained glass paints in different colors. The choice depends entirely on your wishes and the pattern that you want to transfer.
• Stencil. You can buy it ready-made or make it yourself.
• Special pencil for drawing on glass.

First of all, the glass must be thoroughly cleaned, after which the image is transferred to its surface through a stencil. We remove the stencil, and the next step is to draw the borders with special glue for stained glass work. The principle of its action is that it creates almost imperceptible borders that prevent the paint from spreading and filling the neighboring areas.

After this, the glue should be allowed to dry completely. About how much time it will take, the instructions on the package will tell. Now, you can fill limited areas with stained glass paints. That's all, the stained glass panel on the wall is ready, and if you wish, you can also set a backlight for it.

In the process of making stained glass, you may encounter some difficulties that we have not mentioned, so before you get to work, we strongly recommend that you watch the video in this article, which shows a master class on creating stained glass.

Installation of a panel on a wall

There are special mounts for glass and mirrors, but you can also purchase special glue

In fact, it is much easier to make panels on glass walls than to hang them, so we could not leave this issue unattended.

First of all, you need to remember that glass paintings have a lot of weight, so you need to hang them very carefully and carefully. The second nuance is that the glass does not tolerate distortion, so the surface of the wall should be perfectly smooth and even.

There are two ways to attach glass to the wall:

1. On special glue. It is applied to the surface in thin stripes, after which the panel needs to be pressed against the wall for several minutes. The disadvantage of this method is that under such a picture it is impossible to place a backlight, so the tape will have to be glued around the perimeter, or even refuse to use it.
2. On the dowel. This method is not suitable for drywall constructions, since the dowels in them simply will not hold. But, with the help of dowels, panels can be hung at some distance from the wall, which will allow you to place an LED strip under the picture.

Whichever method you choose, the main thing is that the panel is held firmly, because, despite the fact that the glass is quite strong, it will almost certainly crack when dropped from a height. Unfortunately, it is impossible to describe all the glass panels on the wall in one article, but even those options that we told you about will allow you to show your imagination as much as possible and decorate your home with a truly original and stylish decor item.