Spray (or Roll) on your own Window / Door Glass Frosting by tewharau
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I bought 5 second-hand sliding doors (called Ranch Sliders in New Zealand) and wanted to turn them into Ikea-style frosted glass wardrobe sliding doors.  I could have used the film, but it was going to cost more than the doors.  I also could have used the spray but for some reason, we can only get the really small cans and they are expensive too.

So I thought, maybe I can mix something up?
 
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Step 1: What to use?

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I thought about opaque things around the house and PVA glue came to mind.  I watered some down and brushed it onto a piece of glass (pic 1) and although it made it whiteish, it didn't really obscure things in the background.

Next, I tried spraying some watered-down PVA glue.  I used a High Volume Low Pressure (HLVP) sprayer (pic 2) to get a fine spray but you could probably get away with any type of sprayer.  When it was wet, it looked like it was going to work, especially a heavy even coat. Unfortunately, when it dried, it was only a bit better (pic 3) than the brush-on PVA glass.

I figured out that the reason it wasn't obscuring is because the PVA dries glossy and not matte.  I looked online and found that artists use something called Matte Medium (pic 4) to reduce the glossiness of paint, and after a trip to the art supply shop, I mixed up 1/3 MM to 2/3 water and sprayed glass number 3 (pic 5).  This seemed to work perfectly so I mixed up more and started on the doors.


joelhunn says: Feb 21, 2013. 10:15 AM
Nice tip, thanks!
superMacaroni says: Sep 28, 2010. 1:59 AM
Hairspray.
tewharau (author) says: Sep 28, 2010. 12:05 PM
Awesome!
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