I am very lucky to have the ability to work from home a couple of times a week.

My husband and I share a den/office off of our kitchen, near the main level bathroom and the laundry/mud room/exit to the garage.  When we built our house, we did not want to cut the room off from the rest of the house, so we put in french doors with clear glass.

They were lovely and all was right with the world.

Then our one kid grew up, we added three more and we added two dogs.  And all of them seem to migrate to the closed den doors and stare in and demand urgent attention when I am on the phone, working on a detailed spreadsheet or when my husband and I try to sneak away for a discussion in the evening (usually the not-so-exciting but very-necessary calendar coordination).

Then there is this small problem of me distracting myself by seeing people walk by and noticing general happenings outside the door and not staying focused on my work.

I decided a while back that frosted glass on the doors would be a great way to go.  The light could still get through to/from the kitchen area, the frosted glass could hide any messes/projects going on in the den and maybe, just maybe, the masked view would deter the kids and pets from interrupting and me from being distracted with things going on outside the den.   We have desk space in the den for the kids to do homework, and less distractions for them would be a good thing, too.

Obviously, if there is a way to change out the glass, it is no doubt expensive.  And I had no desire to buy brand new doors just to get my frosted glass.  I suspected that there was a DIY solution out there in blog-land, so I kept my eye out for related posts.  I knew there was etching cream for glass, but I was worried about the mess of that and not sure how the result would be en mass.

I found a few posts that recommended using contact paper, but I know myself well enough to know I could never get it perfectly straight, without gaps and be satisfied with the result.  Still, it seemed like the only reasonable solution and I thought maybe my husband would be able to get it done well, but I put it off in the hopes I would find a better solution and not have to pester my husband with yet another project.

Enter Lisa from Before Meets After to save the day!  Lisa posted about her struggles to get the frosted glass look on her entry door AND she found a great solution in the process.  Frosted glass spray!  Lisa was kind enough to tell me that one can covered her entire area, so I knew one can would work for me, too.  I used a different brand, Valspar (from Lowe’s) and had the same great results.  Here is what I did.

I decided to spray the back side of the doors, just in case I did not love how the surface turned out, it would be on the den side and not the rest of the house side.  I carefully taped the window panes and covered the rest of the door to protect from over spray.  I also cleaned the glass really well.  Then, my son took the doors off, we put them in the garage and I sprayed them out there.  The spray needs a minimum temperature, so if you don’t have a heated space and live in a cool location, you may need to wait until the weather warms up.  The vapors were a bit strong in the garage, so doing this outside would have been better.  But, we got the job done just the same.

I was nervous about how it would go, but in the end it turned out FANTASTIC!  I love the result!

The sprayed surface is actually very nice, but I do like the more dimensional look I get from having the frosted glass on the back side of the door.

I think my kids/dogs still stand outside the door in the hopes of getting my attention, but with the frosted glass, I don’t even notice it. Mission accomplished!