Mirror Mirror on the Wall

I know some people who don’t like to have mirrors in their homes….and then there’s my mom who has several in every room for a total of 27; and when you visit, she loves to show them off. They range in size and style, some are new but many are antiques, very unique and beautiful. As I look around my house, it’s obvious that this apple does not fall far from the Mother Tree. I also have many mirrors in my house, far less than mom, I’m currently sitting at 14; they also range in size and style, some are new but many are antiques, very unique and beautiful. In addition, I have several that I have upgraded, renewed, rehabbed.

Some of mom’s mirrors

Bedroom
How cute is mom? ❤️
Beveled glass
Antique mirror
Mirror within a mirror
Living room
Carved Antique
Entryway
Metal frame
Mirror mirror
Reflections of family
Old dresser mirror

Some of my mirrors

Downstairs bath
Bedroom
Craft room
Upstairs bath
Entry mirror
Living room

I’m a big fan of Pinterest! I know, who isn’t? One day as I was enjoying all the fun ideas, I ran across a post that explained how to update your bathroom mirror. You know the standard, contractor mirror that is super plain? Yes, we had one in each of our two bathrooms. I read the post carefully and decided to give it a try in the upstairs bathroom! Below is the ‘before’ picture. Funny how it never really bothered me that it was so plain until I read that it didn’t have to be that way…..

Mirror Project #1

Plain bathroom mirror — **Our plain, contractor installed bathroom mirror**

The first decision for this fun little project was what trim to use. I decided on a 3 1/2″ baseboard MDF trim. I wanted to give the mirror an nice, hefty look but also didn’t want the weight of real wood. I found the trim at Home Depot, one of my favorite places to shop. After buying the trim, I cut it with my fun little miter saw into 4 pieces and applied two coats of white Behr interior latex paint. I usually prefer latex over oil based paint for the ease of clean up and lack of fumy smells. My go to brush is a 1″ angled trim brush although, I’ll occasionally use a foam brush.

As normal, this project was done in the winter so my workspace is set up in the downstairs living room. Looks like I was working on several other wood projects when I worked on the mirror.

wood trim painted — **Mirror trim painted and cut**

After the paint was dry (another bonus to using latex, fast drying time) the next step was to install the trim on the mirror. Using construction glue – Liquid nails – I ran a bead of the glue on the back of each piece and also on the mirror. Once the trim was in place – needed hubby to help hold each piece while I taped them in place while the glue dried. Let me tell you, this was scary! I was sure I’d wake up in the morning and see the trim laying on the counter top, or worse, still on the mirror but sliding down rendering the mirror useless. How would I get the mirror off that wall at the point?! I even got up a couple of times during the night to check that the trim was still in place….pressed on each piece to ensure they were nice and flat against the mirror; they were. As you can see, I used quite a bit of painters tape – I’m actually surprised I didn’t use duct tape – must have been out of it.

Wood trim installed on bathroom mirror — **Trim glued to mirror; taped for insurance**

Amazingly (not really since Liquid Nails is a super, great glue), the trim stayed in place and adhered nicely to the mirror. After removing the painter’s tape, the only thing left to do was caulk the corners.

Finished upgraded bathroom mirror trimmed in wood — **Finished mirror – Love it!**

Mirror project #2

Once the upstairs bath mirror had a make over, I decided to do something with the downstairs bath mirror, it was the same, plain one like we had upstairs…..however, decided to do something a little different. Hubby recently found a mirror at a garage sale, it that had been on a dresser. Knowing I love mirrors, he brought it home. I decided to use it for the bathroom. I didn’t take progress pictures when working on this mirror. There weren’t a lot of steps to it though, just a quick sanding of the wood and some stain to freshen it up. I also added a little gold paint for bits of interest.

Removing the existing mirror was easier than I had anticipated. Once the mirror clips were removed by taking out the screws that held them in place, it was just a matter of lifting the mirror up and out of the aluminum track then removing the track from the wall. I painted the wall since the space where the mirror was didn’t match the rest of the wall.

Sine the mirror is pretty heavy, I located studs in the wall with my handy stud finder. My son held the mirror in place while I secured it with some very long screws. Once it was installed, I used some decorative wood trim on the sides as the drywall isn’t quite level so there were gaps between the mirror and the wall. We are really pleased with the new look!

Gold accent paint
Side trim
Finished look

Mirror project #3

I was on the hunt for a full length mirror for the upstairs bath – they come in handy when making sure your skirt is regulation length for work, you look acceptable to go out in public – and mentioned it to a friend that I was having a hard time finding a decent one. It seems like all that’s out there are the really cheap ones with plastic frames. She said she actually had one in her garage that she was trying to get rid of! SOLD I said and the project was on!

Old mirror before upgrade — **Frame before steel wool sanding**

The mirror had been in Linda’s garage for quite some time so the first step was to use steel wool to sand down the metal frame before gluing on wood trim. Once the frame was sanded, I painted it silver – not sure why since the frame would be covering the face but I guess I thought you’d see the sides after the front was covered with wood. I found a couple of pieces of trim at Habitat and painted them with the same white paint I used on the upstairs bath mirror trim then cut them to size with my miter saw. Again, this was a winter time project, so the painting, gluing and drying was done in my ‘indoor project room’ (i.e. family room). I glued the frame together first using wood glue then taping the corners together while the glue dried. The hand weights were helpful in keeping the wood flat while the corners dried. I used construction glue again to adhere the pieces to the existing mirror frame, clamping the trim to the mirror to ensure good adhesion.

Frame and wood painted
Frame glued at the corners
Frame glued to the mirror

Full length mirror after wood trim added — **Finished product**

Mirror project #4

On one of my jaunts to Habitat to look at doors, I found 5 doors with mirrors installed. The clerk said they came out of a house where they had been used for closet doors. They are each almost 8′ tall! I couldn’t believe they were being sold for $10 each! I bought them all! Now that I think about it, I should have used one in the bathroom for the full length mirror; but since I didn’t think about that when I bought them, I kept two and gave three of them to friends. Ironically, one to my friend Linda who ended up giving me the full length mirror in project #3. Since she’s not into projects like I am, I painted hers and added some knobs for decoration. She put it in one of her bedrooms and just leaned it against the wall.

**Linda’s mirror – ready to go to her house**

My other friend, Leslie was the lucky recipient of two of the doors, one we hung in her entryway and the other leans against the wall in her upstairs bath. She’s also a ‘project junkie’ so hers were dropped off ‘as is’ for her to add her own special touches.

Entry
Bath

I installed one of the two I kept in the entryway by the front door and the other in our bedroom. Since the mirrored doors had been painted, I chose to leave them painted but change the color to match the rooms they would be in. While at Habitat, I found a variety of door pulls and installed them onto both doors for decoration but also to hang jewelry, scarves, small purses, belts.