Making a Mirror My Own

I suffer from a not so rare disease called "make-it-my-own-itis." No matter what it is, a piece of furniture, a picture frame, or in this case, a mirror, I have to leave my own stamp of approval on it. In this case, I found a cute little plaque at Hobby Lobby, that was clearanced down to a ridiculous amount- I think it was $0.70 when I bought it, but originally was $19.99. Seventy cents is more my type of price tag. :-)



The little saying in the middle of the plaque was cute, but, again, I wanted to change it up a little. So off I went to the craft store to find a 6 inch mirror to cover the saying and convert this plaque into a sunburst mirror. Upon arriving at the store, I discovered that a five inch mirror was $0.97, and a six inch mirror (which was the diameter I needed) was $3.97. Now, although I am perfectly capable of dropping a wad of cash on a splurge now and then, today was not one of those days. I snatched up the 5 inch mirror thinking - how hard can it be to incorporate this into my idea? Hehe.

So, when I finally found a quiet moment, free of demolition and paint fumes, I set to work making this converted mirror my own. I started by painting the actual plaque with bronze metallic paint, like I used for my living room lamps, and then painted black craft paint over the little details. Using a paper towel, I rubbed off the excess, leaving little bits of black deposited in the crevices, highlighting the detail of this piece. It worked perfectly, and I was very happy with the look. Then I took a light metallic paint and painted very small amounts onto the tips of the details to give it highlights. :-) It looked great.

Then I pulled out my mirror. Ha! It was way too small. It was so small that some of the lettering stuck out beyond the mirror. So much for my frugality! But I was determined not to spend more than $2.00 on this revamp, so I rooted around in my creative stash and found these wooden beads that used to dress up our roman shades eons ago.



I had the perfect amount to make a little border around the mirror, filling in the gap between mirror and plaque.



A little hot glue and paint later, and they looked very much like an intentional part of the design. :-)



After giving it all ample time to dry out, I hung it up in the living room. You may have noticed that I have showcased many items in this little corner of the living room, that is because I have yet to find the perfect item that really works in this corner. This mirror is the closest find so far, so for now it is a keeper. It adds a little presence and pizazz to this corner, even if it is hung too high to be functional. :-)



So there you go. For two dollars I made my own sunburst mirror, and it is perfectly unique. :-) Just my kind of style.