Glass kitchen apron is a great solution

A glass kitchen apron is a com­mon and suc­cess­ful design solu­tion that allows you to pro­tect the wall sur­face in the work­ing area, cre­ate a cozy inte­ri­or and empha­size the indi­vid­u­al­i­ty of the sit­u­a­tion. This dec­o­ra­tive ele­ment will suc­cess­ful­ly fit into any style, from clas­sic to hi-tech or loft.

Glass apron in the kitchen: pros and cons

If you need to choose which apron for the kitchen is bet­ter, choose plas­tic or glass, you should study the advan­tages and dis­ad­van­tages of these mate­ri­als.

Glass kitchen apron has a num­ber of advan­tages:

1. Envi­ron­men­tal friend­li­ness of the mate­r­i­al.
2. Quick and easy instal­la­tion of glass pan­els.
3. The bril­liance and reflec­tiv­i­ty of the glass visu­al­ly expands the space, which is espe­cial­ly nec­es­sary when dec­o­rat­ing a small kitchen.
4. Reli­a­bil­i­ty. For the pro­duc­tion of aprons, only tem­pered glass is used, which has high frac­ture and impact strength. It is not afraid of mechan­i­cal dam­age, ultra­vi­o­let radi­a­tion and tem­per­a­ture changes.
5. Secu­ri­ty. No sharp shards will form if the glass pan­el is bro­ken.
6. If the length of the web is not more than 3 m, it is pos­si­ble to install a one-piece glass apron.
7. Ease of care.
8. dec­o­ra­tive qual­i­ties. For inno­v­a­tive glass pro­duc­tion tech­nolo­gies, var­i­ous decors, styles, col­ors are avail­able.

Glass pan­els with pho­to print­ing applied to them are very pop­u­lar. It can be a mono­chrome draw­ing, a full-col­or pho­to, 3D.

Col­ored plain aprons are also com­mon. The sur­face can be mir­ror, glossy or mat­te. If art paint­ing or beau­ti­ful wall­pa­per is applied to the walls, it can be pro­tect­ed with a trans­par­ent apron.

To dec­o­rate the wall with trans­par­ent glass, pref­er­ence should be giv­en to the Opti­white class mate­r­i­al. This is a clear glass with high light trans­mis­sion. It does not have a green­ish tint, like ordi­nary glass, does not dis­tort the image placed behind it.

Despite the obvi­ous advan­tages, glass pan­els for an apron also have dis­ad­van­tages:

• The high cost of qual­i­ty glass.
• Instal­la­tion errors can cause con­den­sa­tion between the glass and the wall, con­t­a­m­i­na­tion in the seams.
• It is pos­si­ble to cut holes in the pan­els for the apron only before the hard­en­ing stage, so the prod­uct is ordered on the basis of a ready-made design project that takes into account the place­ment of elec­tri­cal out­lets. Holes for fas­ten­ers are also drilled in pro­duc­tion.
• If the instal­la­tion is unsuc­cess­ful, the joints between the pan­els may be too vis­i­ble.
• Mass use. This leads to the fact that this option for fin­ish­ing the apron is becom­ing more com­mon­place.

Before choos­ing plas­tic or glass for the design of the work sur­face, you need to con­sid­er alter­na­tive solu­tions — plex­i­glass and poly­car­bon­ate.

Poly­car­bon­ate is cheap­er than glass. It is more resis­tant to high tem­per­a­tures than plex­i­glass and stronger than tem­pered glass. The mate­r­i­al is light­weight and flex­i­ble. The dis­ad­van­tage of poly­car­bon­ate is the insta­bil­i­ty to mechan­i­cal dam­age — it is eas­i­ly scratched.

Plex­i­glas is called plex­i­glass, acrylic, PMMA. This is a cheap mate­r­i­al, durable, mois­ture resis­tant, light­weight and flex­i­ble. Plex­i­glas is not demand­ing on the qual­i­ty of sur­face treat­ment, does not emit tox­ins dur­ing com­bus­tion. It can be cut and installed by your­self. At the same time, plex­i­glass is eas­i­ly scratched, tar­nished, sen­si­tive to the action of alco­hol and ace­tone, deformed at tem­per­a­tures above 80°C. It is less trans­par­ent than tem­pered glass.

How to make a glass apron

When choos­ing which glass for an apron in the kitchen is bet­ter, it is worth con­sid­er­ing all pos­si­ble options.

Tem­pered glass — stal­i­n­ite. This sheet glass is first heat­ed to a tem­per­a­ture of 650°C and then quick­ly cooled with cold air from both sides. It has increased mechan­i­cal strength, heat resis­tance and safe­ty in case of destruc­tion. It can be installed at the gas stove, it does not scratch, does not fade, with­stands clean­ing with abra­sives. The ser­vice life is at least 10 years. The fol­low­ing vari­eties are in use today:

1. Stemalite is glass tem­pered after being coat­ed with col­ored enam­el. Does­n’t fade or fade.
2. Satin — glass with a mat­te sur­face.
3. Ski­nali — pan­els with a dec­o­ra­tive sub­strate. The image is applied by pho­to print­ing, stereo print­ing or using a vinyl film.

Lam­i­nat­ed glass — triplex. These are 2 or more sheets of sil­i­cate glass glued togeth­er with a poly­mer film, thanks to which they do not shat­ter into frag­ments when dam­aged. Triplex is made by press­ing at high tem­per­a­ture.

The poly­mer lay­er can be trans­par­ent and serve as a dec­o­ra­tive sub­strate. The lay­ered struc­ture allows you to apply an image or foil on the inner lay­er of glass, com­plete­ly pro­tect­ing it from exter­nal influ­ences. The inner lay­er of triplex can be mat­te or mir­ror, and the out­er lay­er can be hard­ened, imi­tat­ing the tex­ture of leather or fab­ric.

Triplex has all the advan­tages of tem­pered glass. The dis­ad­van­tages include the cost, the large weight of the can­vas, less trans­paren­cy, the dura­tion of pro­duc­tion.

Dimensions

Glass aprons for the kitchen are installed along the entire work­ing sur­face of the room, so the width of the prod­uct depends on the size of the work­ing area.

The low­er edge of the apron should go beyond the coun­ter­top by at least 1 cm. If the upper tier of the head­set is sus­pend­ed at the same lev­el and there is no hood, you can install the apron in one strip 55–65 cm high. If the hang­ing cab­i­nets have dif­fer­ent heights, the pan­el can be curly. The min­i­mum height of the apron to the low­er edge of the hood from the stove is 70 cm, and the width is equal to the width of the stove and hood. Glass should go beyond the hood by 5–10 cm.

Selection tips: what to look for

For an apron, sheets of tem­pered glass with a thick­ness of 6–8 mm are best suit­ed. Triplex thick­ness is stan­dard — 8 mm.

As for the choice of design for a glass back­splash, it is impor­tant to focus on the style and col­or scheme of the kitchen inte­ri­or. It is bet­ter to pre­fer an image con­sist­ing of a max­i­mum of 3 main col­ors that are present in the design of the room, oth­er­wise the decor will bring dishar­mo­ny to the over­all com­po­si­tion. Uni­ver­sal solu­tions — trans­par­ent, white or plain col­ored can­vas.

Acces­sories for glass aprons great­ly affect their reli­a­bil­i­ty and appear­ance. The most pop­u­lar mate­r­i­al for its man­u­fac­ture is met­al. It can be nick­el-plat­ed, brushed, gold or bronze.

Met­al parts are best com­bined with glass and house­hold appli­ances. Fit­tings include fas­ten­ers, brack­ets, hooks and hold­ers, pro­files, sock­ets. In order for the apron to serve for a long time and have an expen­sive appear­ance, you should not save on fit­tings.

LED backlight colors

The fash­ion­able design of kitchens sug­gests the pres­ence of addi­tion­al sources of light­ing. The most func­tion­al — LED back­light. With com­pact dimen­sions, it illu­mi­nates the work sur­face well, with­out flick­er­ing.

The kitchen back­splash can be equipped with pro­files with built-in LED light­ing. Lamps are mount­ed both on the low­er and on its upper edge. For back­lit light­ing, you can choose a sin­gle-col­or LED strip: white, blue, green or red. There is also an alter­na­tive option — mul­ti-col­or light­ing. In this case, the back­light changes col­or at the con­troller’s sig­nal. The col­or ver­sion is good for dec­o­ra­tive light­ing. For func­tion­al light­ing of the table­top, it is bet­ter to pre­fer a tape with white light.

How much does a glass apron cost

The choice of glass is pri­mar­i­ly reflect­ed in the cost of an apron for the kitchen. The price is cal­cu­lat­ed per 1 m² of the fin­ished prod­uct. Tem­pered glass for an apron in the kitchen is cheap­er than triplex. The most expen­sive mate­r­i­al is tem­pered glass triplex.

The fin­ished prod­uct addi­tion­al­ly increas­es the cost of pho­to print­ing by 30–50%. Stereo print­ing costs even more. Opti­white class glass is val­ued some­what high­er than unlit tem­pered glass for an apron in the kitchen.

Since the man­u­fac­ture of aprons is car­ried out to order and with sub­se­quent instal­la­tion, their final cost will be affect­ed by the method of fas­ten­ing, the num­ber of com­po­nents and holes for sock­ets, roof rails.

Tem­pered glass for an apron in the kitchen is more expen­sive than poly­mer coun­ter­parts.

Glass kitchen apron: installation subtleties

Instal­la­tion of a glass apron for the kitchen is car­ried out in three ways: with glue, with fas­ten­ers or using a pro­file. In any case, instal­la­tion work is car­ried out after the assem­bly of fur­ni­ture. After the com­ple­tion of the repair work, the gap between the apron and the coun­ter­top can be closed with a dec­o­ra­tive plinth.

When installing the apron, it is worth con­sid­er­ing the fol­low­ing points:

1. When plac­ing the back­light behind the apron screen, the min­i­mum allow­able dis­tance between the glass and the light source is 7 cm for pho­to print­ing and 3 cm for triplex.
2. Mount­ing screws must be tight­ened care­ful­ly, with­out exces­sive force.
3. In the case of a cor­ner joint, the pan­el is first mount­ed, which rests against the wall, and then the one that rests against the first.
4. The dis­tance between the glass and the hob must be at least 5 cm.
5. Pres­sure on the end of the glass pan­el may cause it to break, the upper lev­el of the head­set must not be allowed to rest on it.
6. In the case of instal­la­tion using a pro­file, a seal is used to pro­tect the glass from met­al screws.

1 — using fasteners

There are the fol­low­ing mount­ing meth­ods:

• With the use of screws with dec­o­ra­tive caps. This is a reli­able method that is suit­able for any sur­face, even if it is a com­plete­ly flat wall or an old coat­ing. This fas­ten­er option allows, if nec­es­sary, to dis­man­tle the apron for a while. There is a dis­tance of about 4 mm between the wall and the screen. The main dis­ad­van­tage of the method is the vis­i­bil­i­ty of the fas­ten­ers.
• With awnings. In this case, the pan­els are insert­ed into incon­spic­u­ous met­al clips. This option is less reli­able, but it allows you to almost close­ly dock indi­vid­ual can­vas­es.

2 — using liquid nails or other adhesives

The sec­ond way to attach the apron to the wall is with the use of an adhe­sive com­po­si­tion. The most pop­u­lar glue is “liq­uid nails”. In this way, the pan­els are attached only to a well-pre­pared, flat sur­face.

The advan­tage is the com­plete adhe­sion of the glass to the wall, which elim­i­nates the appear­ance of con­den­sate under it. When mount­ed on the adhe­sive com­po­si­tion, there are no vis­i­ble fas­ten­ers and the joints are well masked.

How to install yourself

Installing a glass apron in the kitchen with a do-it-your­self fix­ing method is doable. To do this, use glass hold­ers — noz­zles with plas­tic dow­els.

Preparatory work

Before installing the apron, sock­ets, switch­es are dis­man­tled, and the glass­es are pushed out to the thick­ness of the lin­ing. Apply­ing sheets of apron to the wall, markup for fas­ten­ers, make holes 6 mm in diam­e­ter (1–2 mm larg­er than the diam­e­ter of the screw) and ham­mer dow­els into them.

Installation

Pan­els are best installed togeth­er. The order of work is as fol­lows:

1. Sil­i­cone bush­ings are insert­ed into the holes on the glass to pro­tect it from met­al.
2. Screw the self-tap­ping screw to its full length (3.5 cm).
3. After screw­ing in and tight­en­ing the screws, we mask them with dec­o­ra­tive caps.
4. We seal the seams between the pan­els, if any, with col­or­less sil­i­cone.
5. We glue a dec­o­ra­tive plinth between the table­top and the apron.

You can install an apron using an L‑shaped alu­minum pro­file. First fix the upper, then the low­er pro­file. Insert glass between them and fix with a plinth. This method is espe­cial­ly con­ve­nient if the apron con­sists of pan­els of dif­fer­ent heights.

Proper care

Car­ing for a glass apron is sim­ple. To remove greasy stains, any deter­gents and clean­ing prod­ucts are suit­able.

To add shine, you should use pro­fes­sion­al tools. But before that, dust is removed from the glass with a dry cloth. After treat­ment, the apron is wiped dry.