DIY Faux French Door Window Panes

I’ve seen many different ways to create faux French Door window panes on your windows and doors. From using electrical tape to click in pane systems. I wanted to explore a few different ways to create a faux window pane system on our exterior French Doors and I’m talking about how I did it on today’s post. After searching for different products, I landed on a different approach, something I hadn’t seen done before. Neither electrical tape or pricier click in systems, and I think it’s definitely an option you can do.

Also, if you missed the full balcony makeover reveal, you can check that out too!

DIY Faux French Door Window Panes

I started work on our exterior a few weeks ago and decided to update our large French Doors. After painting them Black Magic, I decided to try using Black Adhesive Trim on them to create my own faux window panes. Is this a solution for long term, high quality? No. But I think it looks a lot better than the electrical tape method, it’s budget friendly and from what I experienced I think it’s a good solution if you want to elevate the look of your windows or doors.

After getting a lot of questions about how I did this project I wanted to go into more details here so you can decide if it’s a project you want to try and if it’s a good fit for you.

Supplies

1. Black Adhesive Trim
2. Box Cutter Knife
3. Black Sharpie
4. Measuring Tape
5. Level

And that’s really all you need!

BEFORE

Clean your windows! You want to get all the dust and dirt off of them so the adhesive sticks properly.

First things first, I gave our front door a fresh paint job, doing a coat of primer and then two coats of Sherwin Williams Black Magic. I used Sherwin Williams Emerald Urethane Paint specifically from trim and doors and it was AMAZING. The finish is so smooth and now I want to paint everything in my house!

How to Apply Adhesive Trim On your Windows

Use a tape measure to find the center of your window.

Gently peel back the sticker off the back of the adhesive strip, and place it directly in the middle of the window. Use a level to make sure it is going on in a straight line.

To create the pane boxes, I took the total height of the window and divided it by how many vertical window boxes I wanted. So if I wanted 4, I divided the total height by 4. That number is where you place the middle of the adhesive strip to create your horizontal line. Use a box cutter to trim the pieces. I suggest cutting them a little long and pushing them in.

If you are patient and very precise, the intersection of the lines can be super clean! I love the look of this over electrical tape because it is actual moulding and is a plastic material and raised, versus just strips of tape on your windows. That may look good from far away, but this actually looks more like panes.

When using the black trim, the inside is still white. So you can take a sharpie and color the white edges.

DIY Faux Window Panes TIPS

• The adhesive is very sticky, but I could also gently peel it off if I needed to reposition it. I didn’t see any residue left on the windows but that might change if it was on there longer.
• Cut your strips a tiny bit longer than you think you need, it looks a lot better when I pushed the ends in pretty tight. You can still see the seams, how big they are will depend on how precise you are.
• Depending on the style of your frame, you might see the white ends of the adhesive tape, if you are using the black color. So I took a Sharpie and colored the ends so they didn’t stand out.

Is this a long term fix? No. Is it a fun way to give your doors a fresh look? Yes. Best part, it’s just adhesive and you can peel it off any time you want. I even peeled off a few pieces and redid them and no residue was left on the windows. I’m sure that might change once they have been on longer, but lemon oil takes that off!

This was a fun project, something that I didn’t have a lot of expectations going into and it ended up working out quite well! Now I get to do the other french doors around the house!

Watch The Process