Etched Glass Woking

Founded in 1994, the Leadbitter Glass Studio has been supplying Etched Glass panels to homes and businesses across Woking ever since, delivering to every other part of the UK too. The Victorian villas built up around St John’s and Maybury, in the decades after the railway first reached Woking in 1838, are exactly the kind of period housing where etched glass has always looked its best.

Etched glass, sometimes called sandblasted glass, is made by obscuring sections of clear glass to form a decorative pattern, while leaving the rest untouched. Every panel we make is bespoke, built to your own glass sizes rather than picked from stock — we design thousands of one-off pieces a year. Requests for family crests, favourite trees, and traditional Victorian motifs are all common, and the vast majority of panels qualify for free delivery across Woking.

As one of the oldest decorative glass techniques still in use, etched glass has the advantage of letting through more natural light than coloured styles, since there’s no lead work or tint to block it. Our glass has appeared in a Prime Minister’s home and on Hollywood film sets, but the overwhelming majority of our work is still for homeowners across Woking and beyond. We also produce other styles of Decorative Glass for Woking clients, including Stained Glass, Bevelled Glass, and Fused Glass.

See your glass before we create it!

Our Free Client Pages Design Service

You won’t be asked to order etched glass and just hope it turns out right. Once you’ve placed your order, we open a private Client Page for you and post a to-scale drawing of the finished panel within a few days. If the pattern needs stretching to fit better, or you’d rather your house name sat slightly higher, just let us know and we’ll send back a revised drawing. This can go back and forth as many times as you need — we only get the sandblaster out once you’ve confirmed you’re happy.

Perfect For House Names And Numbers

Etched glass suits house names and numbers particularly well, and it’s one of our most common requests for the fanlight above a front door. If your Woking home has one, we can create a panel showing your house number or name. For the sharpest result, we generally etch the surrounding background and leave the lettering itself clear, so it stands out at a glance.

How Our Etched Glass Is Made

A lot of people assume etched glass involves paint or a printed film somewhere in the process. It doesn’t. We cut a mask to the exact shape of your design and fix it to a sheet of toughened safety glass, then blast the exposed sections with abrasive at high pressure. Whatever the mask covers stays smooth and clear; everywhere else is roughened to a permanent frost.

You end up with a pattern that’s physically part of the glass, not a coating sitting on the surface — which is exactly why it doesn’t fade, peel, or discolour the way a cheaper vinyl “etch effect” sticker does within a couple of years.

Got an old etched panel at home that’s cracked or gone missing? A photograph is usually enough for us to reproduce the pattern closely, even if the original itself can’t be repaired.

Ready to have Etched Glass, or any other decorative glass, made for your Woking home or business? Get in touch today for an accurate quote and turnaround time.

Browse Our Etched Glass Galleries

Our website holds one of the largest collections of decorative glass patterns anywhere. Browse hundreds of Etched Glass designs in our main gallery, arranged by theme and by door style, to find the right pattern — or simply for inspiration towards your own. Visit the Main Gallery to see what’s possible.

Notable Etched Glass Commissions from the Woking area…