I really didn’t know what to title this post, so I thought about it overnight and still didn’t come up with anything, lol. In the end, it just made sense to state exactly what we did – reclaimed used glass with stencils.

My husband found this solid oak, Amish-made gun cabinet on the local Swap and Sell facebook page. We took a drive to check it out and he decided he had to have it. The biggest issue was the sandblasted etching on the glass. The door itself was built around the glass, so we would need a woodworker to replace it, but my husband didn’t want to weaken the integrity of the door. That left us with the option of altering the glass while still in the door frame.

We put some scrap vinyl over a letter to see how badly it would show through, and then a second layer. The sandblasted texture definitely would show through both layers. I knew that acid etching wouldn’t match the texture, so that was out. It was time to get creative.

I measured the area that had been etched, and created it in Make-the-Cut. Then we tried out different shapes to cover it, until he found the one he liked best. I cut the stencil out of 24″ wide vinyl on the roll using a slow speed. I covered the stencil with transfer paper to pick up the thin border and then I used application fluid to give me some time to adjust/move the vinyl around to get it positioned perfectly. After two tries applying the vinyl to the door, we decided to trim it down to just a few inches all the way around because it was just too hard to handle 24″ of vinyl.

Once the stencil was in position, and we had squeegeed the water and bubbles out, we masked the area using freezer paper – one of my favorite multipurpose craft supplies.

At this point, I had to decide if I was going to use acid etch to make the glass hold the paint securely or try something else. In the end, since it was a very large area and I don’t have a lot of acid etch on hand, we decided to use an universal bonding primer (it boasts that it bonds to ANY surface – let’s hope that’s accurate).

Universal Bonding Primer

After the primer had dried completely, we added a stone coat paint. This was how we were going to hide the sandblasted letters within the stencil area. On top of the stone coat, I also added a Matte Finish Coat. Then, the big REVEAL!

There was some water under the vinyl in the upper left hand corner, and it had watered down the primer there. Once it dried completely, I placed small strips of vinyl over the clear glass and touched it up.

Now that the previous owner’s etched ‘sign’ is covered, hubby just has to decide what he wants to put on it. 😉

Materials:

• Decal or Wall Vinyl
• Standard (red cap) blade
• Transfer tape
• Masking material
• Spray Paint and Finish Paint

Settings (Maxx Air 24″):

• f = 28
• v = 150
• p = 1

Steps:

1. Measure the area to be stenciled
2. Create or find a pattern that will cover the area
3. Cut the vinyl
4. Apply the vinyl and mask
5. Paint according to directions
6. Peel away the mask and vinyl