Privacy Doorglass: Embracing Privacy Without Sacrificing Light

Your front door isn’t just a feature in your home. It welcomes your loved ones and guests, sets the tone for your home’s style, and protects against unwanted intrusion—physical and visual. When you need doorglass that is beautiful, functional, and resilient, it might feel like too much to ask for in one product. This is where ODL enters the picture.

Our catalogue of decorative privacy glass has something for everyone: the classic designs you know and love, modern options for the style-forward homeowner, and everything in between. With our extensive catalogue of doorglass options for your exterior doors, you can trust your home has the visual protection your family wants and needs. Keep reading to learn more.  

Also called obscure glass, privacy glass is specially designed and manufactured glass that uses texture to obscure the line of vision and protect privacy in the home. Privacy glass can also be used in camed, stylized, or stained glass, but these privacy glass options include multiple types of glass rather than one single pane.  

What sets obscure glass apart is its minimal look, double-paned construction, and affordable price point. The texture or pattern in privacy glass reduces transparency and visibility, making it an ideal budget-friendly solution for homeowners, builders, and suppliers alike.  

The Origin of Privacy Glass

Compared to other types of stylized entry glass (like camed glass), privacy glass is relatively new to the market. Invented in the mid-1800s, privacy glass was made by rolling a texture into a sheet of molten glass. Today, creating a texture on molten glass or adding a pattern to clear glass is just one way to add privacy and visual interest to doorglass. Styles can range from simple pebbling or reeding to elegant geometric patterns. Other popular styles include chinchilla glass, rain glass, and linen patterns. 

This glass, which is the same thickness as regular float glass panels, is often used to add a layer of privacy both inside and outside the home. Today, you can find these textured, treated, and patterned glass features in homes—both new and old—across the country.

Patterned Privacy Glass Treatment Methods

Patterned privacy glass is created using different glass treatment methods that apply the pattern, texture or color to the glass in the factory.

The four main methods of glass treatment are silkscreen, acid-etched, sandblasted, and ceramic frit. 

• Silkscreen: Ink is applied to the glass in a silk screening process with patterns coming in different opacities, colors, and layers.
• Acid-etched: A patterned screen is applied to the glass before it is submerged in a pool to be chemically treated with hydrofluoric acid. 
• Sandblasted: A machine uses highly concentrated air pressure to blast sand on glass to create patterns and designs. 
• Ceramic frit: Ceramic fuses are baked onto the surface of the glass with extreme temperatures to permanently fuse the designs and patterns.

The Future of Privacy Glass Trends

Modern consumers want and need glass that adds a layer of security to their home without seeming dated or out of step with style trends or their home design. Nature-inspired textures, geometric designs, and even subtle colours are all on the design horizon. 

What’s the Difference Between Frosted Glass and Obscure Glass?

Frosted glass is a subcategory of obscure glass. Frosted glass is made by treating clear glass to give it a soft, foggy texture that resembles sea glass.

This can be done through any of the above mentioned glass treatments: sandblasting, acid etching, silk screening, or ceramic frit. Like other types of obscure glass, frosted glass lets in light but not fine details. However, this method relies on treating clear glass, rather than printing a pattern into glass before it hardens to create visual security.

How Is ODL Stylized Privacy Glass Made?

Our stylized privacy glass is made in much the same way as obscure glass was first manufactured in the 1800s—by using machine mechanisms to press patterns into molten glass. 

Unlike its predecessors, our privacy glass is double-paned and insulated, giving products unparalleled thermal protection, Low-E performance, and, in some cases, protection against impact and severe weather.

Understand ODL Privacy Glass Ratings

Different homes have different privacy needs. A home with a front door that leads into a living space might want privacy glass with a higher privacy rating compared to a front door that leads into a hallway. 

ODL rates privacy glass on a scale of 0-9. 

• 0: No privacy protection or visual security. The door uses clear glass.  
• 1-3: Low privacy protection and high glass clarity. You can see color, shape, outline, and some level of detail through the glass. 
• 4-6: Medium privacy protection and glass clarity. While you can still see colors and shapes through the glass, their outline is blurred and more obscure from the street or road. 
• 7-9: High privacy protection and low glass clarity. Colors, and shapes are extremely distorted and obscure, and gaining a clear line of sight into the home’s interior is not possible.  

What Sets ODL Privacy Glass Apart?

At ODL, we’re not in the business of maintaining the status quo. We are proud to uphold the highest standards of design, manufacturing, and style for our doorglass products. Three features that set our textured privacy glass apart from the competition include: 

• Selection: ODL offers the largest selection of decorative and privacy glass in the industry. 
• Testing: We’re continually testing our products to ensure they not only hold up to daily use but exceed expectations for what an exceptional product should be. 
• Our focus is doorglass: We love glass, plain and simple. ODL’s focus is doorglass and doorglass systems, rather than the entire door. This means consumers, builders, and suppliers benefit from our focused approach to design and manufacturing.  

Need More Privacy at Home? There’s a Design for Everyone

Just because your home came with a certain kind of door glass, that doesn’t mean you’re stuck with that design forever. What most people don’t know is that it’s relatively simple and affordable to swap out a glass front door and glass inserts, and with ODL’s wide selection of privacy glass products, we’re sure you’ll find the right glass for your home.