Mirror, Mirror

When the boyfriend was TDY I tried to keep busy around here. And what’s more exciting to a slightly nuerotic and dorky gal like me than DIY projects? NOTHING! Well, chocolate cake is a little more exciting but whatever. Oh, and there’s the three human beings I birthed, but beyond those small details there’s not too many things that excite me more than making purdy things. So since I’m on a quest to save a buttload of money for our future, not yet conceived bambino I’ve decided to try to work with things I already have. Take this mirror for instance:

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It's not my exact mirror, I didn't take a clear photo of it before I started this project (I need to get better about that) so I just goggled an image close to the type of mirror we have. It's a frameless beveled mirror and I think we bought it from Target for about $20.

I never hung it up because I had a vision for it but I’m just now getting around to acting on that vision. Anyhow, we bought this mirror years ago when we still lived in New Mexico so that should show you how long I’ve been putting off this super easy project. I finally hit up Lowes to get my supplies with the intention to get ‘er done over a weekend. And get ‘er done I did…six weekends ago, shame on me for the delay in this post.

I was inspired to finally do this project after browsing the West Elm website and seeing this big chunky floor mirror:

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Me likey. But I didn’t like the price ($379), so with that, I decided to buy the materials and make it myself. I knew that it would be a fairly straightforward project - all I needed was some plywood to act as the backing and then some molding to build a frame around the mirror.

I started by picking the molding first. And once I knew I had myself I winner I could determine how big the backing needed to be. The great guys at Lowes cut everything to size for me so that all I had to do was stain the molding and piece everything together, but I miscalculated the measurements – Grrr! Math is not my strong point. So I had to trim things down a bit when I got home and realized my calculating errors - so much for trying to save time by having them cut it for me. And since I had the jigsaw out I cut each end at an angle to give it more of a professional look.

Then I used wood glue to fill in the seams and whipped out the stain that I had on hand, Minwax’s Red Mahogany, since it matched the other wood finishes in our bedroom.

To adhere the mirror to the plywood backing I used liquid nails. 

Then I stacked a plethora of heavy stuff on top of it because 1. I wanted to make sure I got good contact and 2. the plywood had bowed a bit prior to me putting the mirror on it (word to the wise: don’t set plywood outside overnight in the foggy, humid Florida air or else it will bend a bit).

I also used wood glue to adhere the molding as well. As well as some nails to give it that extra staying power. Then I had to let it all dry. The directions on the glue said it needed 24 hours to cure so I laid the mirror flat and let it dry with loads of heavy items on it. And since I’m extra paranoid I left it like that for 3 days, just for peace of mind.

Doesn’t it look much better? Before it just looked like it belonged in a 19 year old’s college dorm room. And now it looks like it belongs to a couple of adults.

     

And now more photos just because...

It couldn’t have cost more than $40 for all the wood (and I still have a lot left over) and since I owned everything else already (liquid nails, wood glue, stain, brushes, poly, mirror, etc.) I save quite a bit of money compared to what West Elm is charging. I don’t know why I waited so long to do this, it literally took me a day (not including drying time). Are ya’ll diggin’ my mirror? Do you think I’m nuerotic for always changing things in the house? Please tell me I’m not the only one that put something so simple off for so long.