How to Stencil on a Glass Cabinet Door

You can easily change the look of your cabinet door if you have some ceramic paint and stencils. These doors can change the ambiance of your home, but you need to ensure you are doing the painting properly. Painting on the glass insert of your door isn't much different from painting on a wooden insert. You will need the same kind of skill and expertise. But the point that's significantly different here is that you will need to use different paints specific for use on glass doors.

Get the Right Stencils

There are several kinds of stencils available and these are what can give a whole different look to your door. Go shopping online or look locally in home improvement centers. Even hobby stores might help you there. Your design could be as simple or as complex as the stencil that you get.

Customize or Make Stencils of Your Own

If you want to let your creative Picasso out, or if you don't want to buy stencils from the stores for some reason (these can be expensive), then you can make some of your own. Scour everywhere you can for a picture that you can lay your hands on. Take this picture on tracing paper or duplicate it on card stock. Use a utility knife to cut the portion of the picture that you want to be duplicated on your cabinet door insert.

Spraying Paint on the Stencil

Place the stencil on some old newspapers. Keep the stencil so that its back is visible to you. Then spray the adhesive onto it. Don't do this too hard; just a single spray is enough if you have held the can closely, which is about 10 cm.

Positioning the Stencil on the Glass

The adhesive is so that you can stick the stencil to the door. Do this carefully, because the adhesive is strong and you don't want the stencil to hold onto the wrong place before you're ready. Use some blue painter's tape to hold the stencil on the door at the edges.

Start Painting

You have the stencil in place and the portions you cut off earlier are where you will now paint. You need to have special paint that will hold onto glass, such as ceramic paint. The brush should be a stencil brush. Make the outline first and then start painting inward. You could unleash your creativity here, but only do things you're sure you will get right.

The Finishing Job

Continue this stenciling and painting process until the entire picture is completed. Here's a tip though—don't leave too much time between painting various parts of your picture, because the colors might not steep into each other as you would like them to. Complete one door at a time, and then move on to the other doors.