DIY Project: How to Etch Cabinet Glass
How to Etch Glass
I bought a cabinet a while back that had a look of being rustic and old. We had originally put it in our bathroom, but after moving, have move it into another room that people can see when they visit. To make it not so obvious what is in the cabinet, we decided to etch the glass on the cabinet.
This is not a difficult process, but you do need to do this in a well ventilated area and if you are doing a large project, I would wear gloves, so you do not get the etching material on your skin and use eye protection.
We’ve also used glass bottles and chalk paint for some fun projects.
Getting Started Etching
What You’ll Need:
etching goop (we use #ad Amour Etch)
small paint brush
newspaper
glasses and gloves
You will want to take all the glass out of the cabinet if possible (you’ll need to wash the glass when you are done).
Apply a good thick coating on the glass and allow it to sit for 15 minutes (or what your directions say).
You will want to do long strokes when applying. It ends up looking like paint strokes and every stroke shows, so figure out if you want short or long strokes.
Rinse and check your glass. If you missed a few spots, dry the glass and touch up and repeated the process.
Rinse and dry the glass off before putting back into the cabinet doors. Rinse off outside if possible and if not, rinse in the sink/shower AND CLEAN thoroughly the area you rinse the material off in.
Allow the glass to dry or towel dry. You can then put the glass back into your cabinet.
If you don’t feel your project is opaque enough, you can repeat the process. We’ve done other etching projects as well.
We’ve also worked on tables, chairs and benches.
I have 2 pieces of glass that I want to repurpose to shelves. They’re 11 3/4″ x 24″. How much etching cream would I need to do both sides of both pieces of glass? I want to make sure I order enough.
Thanks!
Hi There. The pieces I did were 29″x7″ and there were four of them.
We had some left, but depending on the size of the cream you get, you might need more. You would need to check to see how many square feet it covers.
Also consider if you are not happy with the application and need to do apply it a second time.
Another question is why are you doing both sides of the glass. Not sure of your project, so maybe it’s needed.
I bought a glass etching kit during one of my phases….lol. It still sits there unopened but it looks like good. Thank you for sharing.
You should open it Danielle. It would be an awesome project to spruce something up with.
I’m totally bummed that I don’t have any glass to etch. Especially since that looks so insanely easy!
It was insanely easy. Maybe you can find some pinterest gift ideas to make a project to etch! 🙂
Looks like a cool DIY project.
Thanks Carmen. I was impressed with myself.
Very cool project. It is amazing what a liitle goop can do. TFS
lol. Yup…a little goop can make a different.
It has never occurred to me that I could etch glass if I wanted to. Huh. Guess I’m not spending enough time at Michael’s! Great idea and I like how it came out!
Definitely need to spend more time in Michaels. But I wonder if one of the home stores has this stuff in a bigger scale that would be more potent (and less expensive)
That turned out great! What a cool idea!
Thanks!
Thank you.
Looks like it is a super easy DIY project. Came out nice too.
Thanks. It was pretty simple to do.
15 minutes to happiness (or so the bottle of etching said). I found clean up took longer than the entire process.
Thanks Shawn. I like it the more I look at it.