Turn your windows into art with Pane Paint!

Making your own window paint is child’s play!

Painting on paper is all well and good, but it’s also fun to shake things up. With Pane Paint, our glass paint recipe, your little budding artists will be able to create their next masterpiece… on your windows! Not to worry, this paint washes off very easily—unlike crayons on your walls—so it’s a recipe for endless fun.

Another thing we love about this DIY window paint is that it’s also super easy to make. All you need is just five minutes per shade, though you might want to budget more if some little ones are giving you a hand making it. 

Easy to make, easy to use, and easy to wash off—you could almost say this Pane Paint is painless!

How to make paint for windows

Ingredients

• 8 g (26.9%) demineralized water
• 1.3 g (4.3%) gum arabic (acacia gum)
• 18 g (60.4%) calcium carbonate
• 1 g (1%) cornstarch
• 0.3 g (3.4%) GeoGard Ultra
• 1.2 g (4%) mineral colourants (use oxides or ultramarines)

Tools

• Two small stainless steel bowls
• Components to make a double boiler
• Thermometer
• Whisk
• Regular-sized silicone spatula
• Scale, accurate to 0.1 g
• A few teaspoons
• Wide PETE (polyethylene terephthalate) jar (60 ml) 

Good to know!

• Gum arabic helps give this DIY glass paint its hold: it provides texture and makes it so the paint doesn’t run down your windows. It can’t be replaced by another gum.
• Calcium carbonate is a thickening agent and opacifier. It contributes to the texture of your homemade window paint, while making it opaque—which is important with a transparent surface like glass!
• GeoGard Ultra is the preservative in this paint recipe.
• Cornstarch improves the paint’s adherence and makes it easier to apply. It can’t be replaced.
• To tint your homemade window paint, you can use oxides or ultramarines. You can mix them to get the tint you’d like, so long as the total quantity of colourants makes up 4% of your paint recipe. We advise against adding biodegradable glitter or mica, because they will leave white particles on the glass as well as changing the texture of the final product. 
• This recipe provides quantities for one jar of window paint. Repeat it with different pigments for each colour you want to create.

Steps to follow

1. Prepare and disinfect your equipment and workspace.
2. Weigh the GeoGard Ultra and demineralized water in the first bowl. Gently heat on the double boiler until the GeoGard Ultra is dissolved, while stirring with the spatula. The temperature of the solution must not exceed 30°C.
3. Weigh the gum arabic, colourants, cornstarch, and calcium carbonate in the second bowl.
4. When the GeoGard Ultra has dissolved, remove the bowl from the heat and pour the contents of the first bowl into the second. Mix well using the spatula.
5. Pour the mixture into the jar. Your homemade window paint is ready!

Use and conservation

Apply this DIY paint directly to your window with a paintbrush. You can also use a stencil—just apply the paint to a sponge then tap it against the glass to deposit the colour. This paint rinses off easily with soap and water.

It will keep for about three months.