Painting French Doors

[DPB]

I recently installed two sets of double doors in my lounge room. (These were new unpainted doors.) Each door has 10 panes x 2 sides x 4 doors = 80 panes x three coats of paint = 240 paintings x 4 sides/pain = 960 edges to hand cut in the paint.

Well, you can imagine that this task became bigger than Ben Hur and started to drag out much longer than originally intended. (The professional painter quoted $2000 to paint the doors.) I thought that was an awful price before I attempted the job myself. Now I think it is a bargain.

Half way through the job, a builder friend of mine offered me a tip which worked fantastically and enabled me to finish the last half of the job in one quarter of the time the first half took.

I purchased a roll of Contac book covering material and cut panels slightly larger than the window pain and trimed these in with a Stanley Knife flush to the pane edge. I made certain the edges were well sealed by running my finger firmly around the pain.

Now I could paint with abandon. No need to worry about cutting in the edges - just a generous application of enamel paint onto the two base coats. I allowed the enamel to dry for 5 days. Then I cut around the perimeter with the Stanley Knife to cut a clean edge, and removed the Contact.

Perfect job if I do say so myself!

DPB

[Kev Y.]

DPB, If memory serves me - and I have been told lately that my memory is faulty!! -

there is a product on the market which does nearly the same thing .

it comes in the form of an oversized sticky tape dispenser. all you do is run it around the edges of the glass then pull it off when finished.

Kev

[barrysumpter]

Hi DPB,

I'm sure the painter would have sent in his son or an apprentice to do the job anyway.

So did you made 2 or 20 squares?

A family friend who renovated his own house and later built his own house needed to paint 16 window frames.

He just painted the window frames allowing the bruch and paint to overlap onto the window.

After he let dry, using a razor scraper - scraped the excess off the smooth glass.

I remember having a family get together many times in that house before he sold it to invest in building his new house.

I remember looking out that window many times and never once did I notice the edging.

I often get stuck on intricate details that noone else ever notices.


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Thanks,
Barry G. Sumpter
Proud Tritoneer

[This message has been edited by barrysumpter (edited 04 February 2002).]

[Iain]

Masking tape and like Barry said, a scraper, piece of p***.
My wife does it this way and it does not seem to bother her that much, better chevckmout that Valentine posting now

[DPB]

I've used masking tape, and frankly, I find it rather problematic.

Oil based paint dries slowly - I mean real dry. Yes, it forms a skin in a few hours, but depending on the relative humidity,it takes at least 48 hours for the point to dry right through. As most of you will have experienced, the longer you leave masking tape on before removing it, the more difficult it becomes to do so.

Secondly, and perhaps its the quality of tape I've used in the past or just poor application, but I find that oil paint tends to seep under the tape.

I've also used those razor-blade type paint scrapers. They work quite well, but I found the process I've outlined worked even better and faster.

If you count both sides of 2 sets of double French doors, that's eighty panels, mate!

Perhaps I am a little fussy, but these doors divide a formal living room from a music room and formal dinning room. The glass is beveled, working almost like a magnifying glass. Any small imperfection shows up - at least that is what my wife tells me!

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[Shane Watson]

I had the same problem when we got a new front door. Except I was using clear lacquer not paint. I had 18 panels to cut in so I used masking tape and what a hassle. couldn't use the razor method afterwards as the glass is patterned. But it wouldn't have been any easier using any other method as the panels were not perfectly square they had rather rounded cornors and they weren't all the same size...Grrrr bringing back bad memories...haha..

[This message has been edited by Shane Watson (edited 04 February 2002).]