Therapy. Everyone needs some.: Window Mirror DIY

My DIY Mirror Creation After

Before

During the great "French Country" home redecoration project of 2011-2012 one of the main projects was going to be the living room mantel. Because the room is very long but not wide I knew I wanted to go with a mirror above the fireplace to create the feeling of more space. I found this gorgeous Jill Mirror at Ballard Design, but yikes, the price tag was $400. In our home there are mirrors all over the place- my attempt at creating more light space. So, I decided to take a mirror from the foyer and turn it into something similar to the Ballard mirror for over the fireplace. $5 worth of supplies and an afternoon later, voila! It turned out better than I could have hoped for! Here are the steps and tools I used:

Supplies:
Mirror
Sander or sandpaper
Your paint of preference. I used Krylon Indoor/Outdoor in black with satin finish
Ruler or measuring device
Square dowel rods pertaining to the size of the inside of your mirror. You can find square dowel rods at Michael's or Home Depot
X-acto knife or any other sharp blade to cut the rods with
Hot Glue or other adhesive. I prefer hot glue since it comes off of glass fairly easily

Construction:

1. Prep mirror for painting. Dust it & cover the mirror with newspaper and painters tape to prevent paint from getting on mirror. If that does happen, use your x-acto to carefully scrape off paint.

2. Measure the inside of your mirror. This will help you determine what size to trim your rods to.

3. Sand frame if necessary

4. Paint the frame and dowels. I did three coats.

5. Once your mirror and dowels are painted and dried, cut two dowel rods to fit inside of the mirror. They will need to lie against the glass and fit inside the frame. DO NOT glue.

6. Using your ruler space the two dowels so that all three sections are the same width. Imagine that you are making a tic-tac-toe board and all of the sections need to be the same size.

7. Using your ruler determine what size the smaller rods need to be to finish the mirror. You will need six of these. I did one piece and tried it out in between each space before cutting all of them, just to double check that I had the right size. DO NOT glue your pieces down yet. Wait to glue pieces down until you have measured and cut each of the smaller rods to the correct size and the window is straight.

8. Once your window looks straight you can now begin gluing the pieces together. Gently lift or slide the end of the rod to the side to where you can put a spot of glue on the rod. Gently hold it back in place and let glue dry. I found that I did not have to put glue on the end of each slat given that my pieces were pretty snug fitting. If you use hot glue it is fairly easy to redo gluing if needed.

9. Let glue dry and enjoy your beautiful creation!

10. Now go get yourself a latte & massage with all that money you saved. You've earned it!