How to Install Glass Designs on a Panel Garage Door

Picking Your Glass

• 1

  Use frosted glass blocks or cracked frosted glass panels for contemporary homes. Frosted glass blocks look best in large pieces, so are best used on a panel garage door with large spaces for glass installation. If you have smaller sections or more broken-up panels, stick with smaller cracked frosted glass panels instead.

• 2

  Install clear or frosted etched glass panels with a pattern like a fleur de lis for more transitional-style homes. Clear or frosted etched glass panels may be too modern or too traditional for more recently built homes. If your home is contemporary, consider clear or frosted etched glass panels with a more abstract or geometric pattern instead of a more recognizable pattern.

• 3

  Put stained or painted glass in the panels of your garage door for a more traditional home. Stained or painted glass is commonly paired with wood or wood-colored garage doors to give an earthy, natural look. If you have a more transitional style, you can still use painted glass, but stained glass should be avoided, as it may look dated, out of place and in the wrong setting.

• 4

  Use clear but colored glass in your garage door panels to give your home a bit of color. You can use colored glass panels in one, two or three different colors, and it can be used in patterns for a more uniform look, or added randomly to the panels in your garage door for an ultra-contemporary look.

  When choosing colored-glass panels, avoid using more than three different colors in the same garage door, as the area is too small for that many colors to make an impact, and the result will look thrown together instead of planned.

Installing Your Glass

• 5

  Remove the old glass or wood panels from the garage door. Use a putty knife to pry around the edges where the panel is held in place with adhesive. Strip the adhesive with your putty knife until the old panel comes free.

• 6

  Measure the thickness of the old glass or wood panel with a measuring tape. Then you can install a panel of the same thickness, so you don’t have to alter the frame on the garage door, which can be a difficult, time-consuming job.

• 7

  Place the new glass panel in the frame. Seal it with a small amount of window caulking around the edges. Allow the caulk to dry, according to manufacturer instructions.

• 8

  Cover the caulking with liquid cement once it dries. Allow the liquid cement to fully dry before using the garage door.