Mirror Mirror On The Wall

The pleasure and the problem with living in Souther California is the weather. It's so dang hot all the time (especially for this Seattle gal), that the need for a fire place is non existent.  So what's a girl to do come Christmas time? There's no mantel to decorate!

No problem, I say, I'll just make my own. This turned out to be a fairly easy and cost effective project because I followed Ana White's plan. I had the 1x2 wood and the stain on hand, but I did spend $7.50 for the 1x4's. Less then $8 for a functional and study shelf ain't too shabby, especially because Pottery Barn charges $85 for the same 4 foot length!

It's decorated with crap treasures I found around the house including a 14 yr old framed picture I took in the Bahamas! The clock and the ladder are from Pottery Barn at least a decade ago. The fan is from Home Goods last summer. So this will be my "summer" mantel for now, but I can't wait until we get to Christmas to really dress it up.

The real work came when I decided I needed to put a mirror behind the shelf. This took me a little more time than anticipated because of those tedious "x" frames. In fact the hubby made a comment that went something like this, "If you put as much effort into cleaning as you do with crafting, the house would be spotless". Anyone want a free husband? I'm giving him away.

Any-hoo, back to the project. I started with the cheapo door mirror from Target. It cost me a whopping $4.99. I chose the white because I knew the molding I was going to use was white and I might was well start with the same base color before I painted. It looks like this...

Isn't it sexy? Haha, no. I'm not going to write a step by step tutorial because someone already did that for me, here. I will add a few pointers though.

1. Cut your trim to fit and paint before you glue them to the mirror.

2. Don't worry too much about making them fit perfectly. Wood filler works wonders! You will have to touch up paint the joints with the filler, but that's easy to do after it dries. 

3. Bulk up the existing frame with an inner rectangle of trim. It makes it look more substantial and expensive. The tutorial has a plywood board behind the mirror, but I thought it was too heavy. 

4. Use what trim you like, but I picked the PVC white screen molding. It was the right thickness and very light weight.

5. Calculate how much trim you need before you shop. I underestimated and had to send hubby to HD to buy another piece. It was his punishment for the cleaning comment!

Total cost:
Mirror $4.99
Trim (3 pieces of 8' length) $6.60
Spray Paint (I used Oil Rubbed Bronze by Rustoleum) $6.50
Liquid Nails, on hand, $0
Small round mirrors for centers $0.75 for 10
TOTAL: $18.80

My family room got a new look for less than $27! I guess I could go do some cleaning now....nah! There's more crafting to do!

-sarah