How to Choose Glass Colors for a Stained Glass Pattern

Every stained glass pattern comes with a suggested color palette, but part of the appeal of the craft is that you don't have to follow it exactly. Knowing how to choose colors, whether you're sticking close to the original or substituting your own, makes the difference between a piece that feels intentional and one that feels random.

Start With the Pattern's Color Mockup

If you're working from a pattern kit, the color mockup is your reference point, not a rule. It shows one version of how the design can look, chosen to make the subject read clearly at a glance. Before changing anything, look at why each color was chosen: does it define the subject's silhouette, or add contrast between adjacent pieces so the eye can tell them apart? Substitutions that respect this logic tend to look intentional, ones that don't can make the finished piece harder to read.

Value Contrast Matters More Than Hue

A common beginner mistake is choosing colors that are pleasing together but too similar in value, how light or dark they are. Two adjacent pieces in similar values can blur together visually once the piece is backlit by a window, even if the colors themselves are quite different. Aim for noticeable value contrast between any two pieces that share an edge, this is what makes individual pieces read clearly from a normal viewing distance.

Cathedral vs. Opalescent Changes the Feel

Your color choice isn't just about hue, it's also about glass type. Cathedral glass is transparent and lets light pass through clearly, giving jewel-toned, glowing results. Opalescent glass is more opaque and textured, giving a softer, more painterly look. Mixing both types within one piece is common and often effective, cathedral for areas where you want light to shine through vividly, opalescent for areas meant to read as solid color. Full comparison here: cathedral vs. opalescent glass.

Testing Before You Cut

Before committing glass to your pattern, lay your chosen sheets over the color mockup, or hold them up to a window if you have access to natural light, and compare how they look together in actual light, not just under indoor lighting on a store shelf. Colors that look right side by side on a table can shift once backlit, since transmitted light behaves differently than reflected light.

Where to Start

Every Sunlit Pane pattern kit includes a tested color palette as a starting point, so if choosing your own colors feels like too many decisions for a first project, following the suggested palette exactly is a completely reasonable choice.