Back-painted Glass Gains Design Popularity

By Author: Future Glass
Total Articles: 2
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Back-painted glass continues to increase in popularity for use as a decorative architectural glass product for interior space in commercial, institutional and residential projects. There are many reasons for the trend’s continued growth. The leading reason is that the product is a modern alternative to ceramic tile, stone and laminates, and backpainted glass offers endless color choices, allowing vibrant colors to be brought into workspaces.

Office space is seeing the largest increase of this glass for use as wall coverings, dry-erase glass marker boards, reception areas, room dividers, workspace dividers, elevators, elevator lobbies, escalator walls, corporate signage, countertops, glass stairs, and in furniture applications such as glass tops and doors.

Dry-erase glass marker boards are popular and now feature several options that can be added to the glass, including an easily cleanable nonglare surface, magnetic backs for use as a glass-magnetic board, and frames that allow the marker boards to be easily demounted and relocated.

Many projects seeking LEED status use back-painted glass as a wall covering, ...
... which allows the reflection of natural light. Installations completed with either low-volatile organic compound adhesives or no VOC adhesives could contribute to LEED credits.

The glass trend is also gaining popularity in health care projects that incorporate color therapy into treatment areas and patient-care rooms. The use as message boards in nurses stations and patientcare rooms have increased dramatically. One of the reasons for this uptick in popularity is because the glass is nonporous, easy to clean and can withstand the harsh cleaning required by medical facilities.

Back-painted glass can be produced in large sizes, thus allowing for the reduction of the number of seams, further reducing places where germs can get trapped.

Restaurants use the back-painted glass for menu boards, tabletops, kitchen walls and countertops. Glass countertops are ideal in a kitchen for similar reasons as medical centers, because glass is nonporous and reduces the risk of food cross contamination. Backsplashes in kitchens and bathrooms and vanity tops are the primary multifamily uses.

Retailers realized that back-painted glass can add a modern look by adding bright colors or corporate colors to their showroom space and is an excellent product for enhancing the brightness of the stores.

The trend is gaining popularity because it is easy to maintain, the glass substrate is nonporous as well as resistant to moisture and fumes. If the glass has too much reflection, the reflectivity of glass can be controlled with the use of surface-etched glass. Glass with etched European patterns can be back-painted for an upscale look to the project.

If considering back-painted glass, it is important that the glass is manufactured using a low ironglass substrate in order to achieve the closet color match to the color specified, which is especially true for light and bright colors. Using a “regular clear” glass substrate will prevent light colors and bright colors from being replicated. Equally important in the decision is the manufacturer’s product warranty. A complete written warranty should be obtained from the supplier and retained for the entire warranty period.

Back-painted glass is available as annealed, safety tempered or laminated and can be custom fabricated to fit most applications.
Back-painted glass is one such material that is extremely prevalent around the world, and is gaining in popularity in the world. It retains the sleek, modern appearance of glass while also enabling designers to insert fun pops of color and texture into their projects. Back-painted glass is equally at home in residential or commercial settings as wall coverings, tabletops, shelving, partitions, furniture, and doors.