St Albans Etched Glass

Leadbitter Glass was established in 1994 and ever since has supplied homes in St Albans with stunning Etched Glass and Victorian Etched Glass Panels. While it is one of the oldest forms of decorative glass, modern Etched Glass designs are steadily rising in popularity. Many homes in the area feature elegant Etched Glass panels along with upscale commercial buildings. Free delivery to homes in St Albans is provided for almost all panels we produce.

Our studio also provides Stained Glass, Bevelled Glass and Fused Glass to clients in St Albans.

When you place an order with us, you’ll receive a Computer Generated Proof showing what your glass will look like matching your chosen design to your custom glass sizes – known as the Client Pages Service. This is a great way to see how your bespoke etched glass panels will look before we begin production. This gives you the opportunity to request design changes before production begins on your panel(s). You may decide that you want a decorative border adding, a few extra leaves adding or the size of a house number increasing. We’ll make your amendments until you are 100% happy with the design and you give our glass artists the thumbs up to begin production.

Your numbers up!

If you want to display your house name or number in door glass or fanlights, Etched glass is the way to go. Many homes in the St Albans area have top lights (transom lights) above their doors which is the ideal place to elegantly display your etched house name or number. Etched house names and number panels are very popular among our clients, our glass artists produce hundreds of them every year! If your home has a transom window above the door, we can create an etched house number or name in your choice of font and decorative border if you would like one. We can also create matching glass to go in your door.

Recent Etched Glass commissions from the St Albans area:

Leadbitter Glass has supplied hundreds of homes in and around St Albans with our beautiful etched glass. Here are some examples of local orders…..

Etched Glass Lions For St Albans Pub

Ten years ago a St Albans couple enquired if we had any etched glass Lion designs. The clients had bought the old Black Lion Pub in St Albans. We directed the client to our Etched Glass Inspirations page where they could see a Lion design. This ‘inspirations’ section of the website contains images of glass that we didn’t actually create. The client loved the Lion featured in that gallery and placed the order. The main link above shows the finished glass installed in the clients door.

Etched Glass Dragon

In 2017 clients from St Albans sent us a sketch of a Dragon and asked if we could create it as an etched glass panel. The title link above shows the CGI drawing we created for customer approval. The glass was a slim, tall double glazed unit for the centre of their new door. The background of the glass was sandblasted to be fully obscure with the detail of the dragon in clear glass.

Browse Our Etched Glass Galleries

We can create almost any pattern in etched glass, if you haven’t found the right design yet to compliment your home, head on over to our extensive Etched Glass Gallery for some inspiration. We have thousands of stunning decorative glass designs to choose from which are perfect for both doors and windows. Within our etched glass gallery, there are categories such as Traditional, The Edinburgh Range and Repeat Backgrounds, Modern, Victorian and many others.

How is Etched Glass made?

We never use ‘stickers’ on our etched glass panels. Our etched glass is produced the right way by sandblasting the glass so it is permanent and of the highest quality. Some companies state that they offer “Etched Glass” when they actually just place a vinyl sticker onto the glass, so no ‘etching’ has actually taken place. When these stickers are exposed to the sun, over time they can turn yellow and even start to shrink after a few years. Other companies may offer to screen print the ‘Etched Glass Effect’ onto the glass but this causes the same discolouration issue over time. Always make sure you are paying for a quality ‘sandblasted‘ etched glass product, as the saying goes – “buy cheap, buy twice”. You can see the problems encountered with fake etched glass.

Our process

First, we cut a temporary mask to shape and overlay it onto one side of the panel. This stops the areas we want to remain clear from being etched. The stencilled panel is then placed inside a sandblasting booth and coarse grit/sand is fired at high speed across the panel. Once the etching process is complete, the temporary mask is removed, leaving the protected areas clear with the unprotected areas now etched. If the glass is single glazed, we then apply a protective sandblast coating to the etched side. If the glass is to be double glazed, the coating doesn’t need to be applied because the etched side will be protected within the unit.

Etched glass supplied to any home throughout the St Albans area:

Hemel Hempstead – Watford – London – Luton – Harrow – Aylesbury – Stevenage – Hatfield – Welwyn Garden City – High Wycombe – Enfield – Letchworth – Chesham – Tring – Hitchin – Berkhamsted – Amersham – Chorleywood – Borehamwood – Radlett