I scored some bookcases at an estate sale for $50 a piece. It was such a great deal that I couldn’t pass it up and I started to make plans for them as soon as I got them home. I had so many ideas running around my head and I shared them with you all here. But, we ended up moving before I could build them and create my library so now I am using them in the new house in a very different way.
In the new house I took on a new library wall project and ended up combining the bookcases with some furniture pieces that I already had. Along with that I built a couple of small cabinets to create a massive bookcase wall with a functioning secretary desk and a file cabinet. All of the pieces were a different color so I made them all look like one cohesive piece by painting them all the same color. 
To make that happen, I also had to figure out the best way to paint the doors on the cabinets. It ended up being, in total, over 80 small panes of glass. I started to tape a couple off and it was taking forever to get them just right. I decided to go another route and use a paint-on masking tape instead. I had never used it and was skeptical at first, but quickly realized I will never spend the time to tape off little panes of glass again. I was wondering where this had been all of my DIY life and why nobody told me.
Paint Sprayer // Masking Liquid
I wasn’t able to find it in the local stores so I bought it on Amazon. I bought a couple of the inexpensive chippy brushes so I could just throw them away and started to paint away. I had never used this masking liquid before so I wasn’t entirely sure it was going to work. It took me less than an hour to paint the liquid on all of the panes where taping was going to be really time consuming so I was already considering this a win.
Once I got all of the masking liquid painted on the panes of glass I quickly primed all of the doors. I just used a favorite brush to paint a coat on and didn’t have to be careful because of the coating of masking liquid. Depending on the kind of paint you will be using, you can also use this masking liquid as a primer for your paint and paint it on the wood as well. Doing this will allow you to skip the step of priming with a primer paint.
I sprayed a couple of coats of my final paint color all of my doors with my favorite sprayer, which made it go really fast. Then it was time to see just how amazing this stuff really is.
Using a very sharp blade, score around the window along the edge of the frame. I also scored across the glass to create a space for me to easily get my blade under and be able to pull it up.
Be amazed. All the paint will come right up! That is why it is really important to take your time to cut all around the frame nice and evenly. No worries, though. You can clean up any residual paint left over with a flat razor blade. It cleans up beautifully.
Things to note:
- Having a very sharp blade and scoring well really makes a difference in the ease of getting all of it off at once. Renew your blade for each door.
- Put in on generously or it will be harder to get it off. You will find yourself scraping with a blade more.
- Read all instructions on the back of the can. While this masking liquid can also be used as a primer over raw wood or existing paint, it is not compatible with all paints and is not recommended to be used with some (like Sherwin Williams Emerald line).
- Cutting across the glass at a diagonal will allow your blade to go under the paint to help lift it up to peel it off. Otherwise you will most likely need tweezers to lift it out of the corners.
- You CAN use it on the border edge of a bigger window and it will peel right up. Although I would probable go ahead and just tape off around the border of a larger window.
I hope that this is helpful to you. I wish I knew about this a long time ago and I will forever and always use this method for painting any doors with window panes from now on. You can use it on so many projects! Use this for anything you have to paint that has a window. It will be so worth it, I promise! I am sure a lot of us have been there. I would love to hear about any projects you wish you knew about this product for or want to use this project on in the comments below!!
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