Garage Door DIY Windows

​text by Vicki     ​Sign up to get Mother Daughter Projects updates in your email!

Like many homeowners, Steph had those plastic decorative panels on the outside of her garage windows. She never liked them, so when we recently made some changes to her garage door, one of those changes was to muscle those out and toss them in the garbage.

She liked the look of the open windows, but this being Florida, she didn't like the overabundance of light and heat the windows now let in! I know, Florida problems ?

The solution came in the form of painter's tape and frosted glass spray! Here's what we did to reduce the amount of heat and light coming in and add a little update to the windows.

Materials:

• Painter's tape--we used Scotch blue Platinum, 1.41"wide
• Rust-Oleum Frosted Glass spray paint 
• Window cleaner/rags
• Large piece of some what transparent paper to make pattern
• Additional painter's tape and scrap paper
• Safety gear--goggles, respiratory type mask
• Ryobi hybrid fan

Old plastic inserts

The windows stripped of their 'decorative' plastic panels.

The end result- the windows with their freshly painted 'faux' window mullion.

Before taping the windows, we made sure the glass was clean.

We tested our idea with this widow. We taped and then painted the glass to see if we liked the look and to see if it was visible outside the garage.

We used Rust-Oleum Frosted glass.

We used two coats of spray.

Once satisfied with the look, we made a paper template to be able to tape the windows quickly and precisely.

Steph held the template outside the windows, while I taped the inside--this method works very efficiently.

We used painter's tape and paper to protect the door from overspray.

Because we were spray painting in a closed garage we wore respiratory type of masks to protect ourselves from the overspray.

Once the first coat was sprayed we immediately opened the door to air out the garage.

Our Ryobi One+ battery operated fan helped us to move the spray out.

Once the first coat dried, we closed the door and applied a second and final coat.

The Scotch Blue Platinum tape left a crisp line and was easy to remove.

Here's the garage door with the finished windows. See that hardware? You all voted on which you liked and hardware A won! (See our post here to read the details about the hardware we used and how installation is as simple as putting a magnet on your fridge!)

Since we work in the garage a lot, we will appreciate the reduction of heat and light into the garage this summer!

This was a low cost solution to the problem of too much heat and light, plus it can be considered reversible as the paint could be scraped off with a razor blade if we wanted to change up the look. But for know, we are happy with the change. 

What could you do to update the look of your garage? Hardware, change out the windows? paint? Let us know in the comments below!

FYI: We are not professionals, and we don’t claim to be. This is what we found worked for our pro
ject. Yours may need a little different approach. Safety first!

FYI: Affiliate links are being used on this page. Purchasing via these links help support MDP!

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