I found an old mirror at my local thrift store for $5 and I knew it wanted it right away. I am currently remodeling my bathroom and thought it might be a cute fit in there somewhere.
My house has arches, and circles everywhere in the architecture. Our front door has a circle window, and there are 2 different arches over doorways throughout the house. So even though this shape is super popular right now, I am also excited that it goes with the style of my 1940 house.
This post may contain affiliate links to things I have used.
Here is how I did it!
Materials:
- An old mirror with a sturdy frame
- Jigsaw if re-shaping is needed
- Sandpaper- 80-120 grit
- Rustoleum White flat Spray Primer
- Rustoleum Gold Metallic Spray Paint
I also used a few additional materials that are not necessary for a normal flip, but I had some mistakes to fix. I will go over the steps of how to fix broken furniture in the next post. This post is a general quick flip!
Step 1: Re shaping
With the mirror I found, I didn’t like the window pane look in it. So I decided to re-shape it by using the jigsaw to cut out the framing in the middle.
First I removed the mirror backing, which was just a cardboard paper backing. Then removed the extra staples that were holding the mirror in, but were not bent past use after removing the mirror. I tried to save as many as I could, but they were pretty fragile.
Then using the jigsaw, I cut out the center framing part that I didn’t care for. I cut carefully at each attachment point until the frame fell out.
Step 2: Prep
The next step was sanding the frame for painting. After I removed the middle window framing there was a few spots that were raised in the pattern around the edge that I didn’t like. I used a handheld router and made the edge the same all the way around. This definitely was an extra step that wasn’t needed, but I was being picky about the way it looked all the way around. Depending on the shape you find you may not need to do this part.
You will need to prep though. I used first a 100 grit sandpaper and gave the front and edges where I cut a good sanding. I didn’t want to use a bigger grit sandpaper like 80 grit on this piece since the wood material on it was MDF. With a softer wood like MDF, it will cause deep grooves and scratches if you use a sand paper that is too aggressive for it.
Wipe off all of the excessive dust from sanding with a dry cloth, or a damp cloth, just not too damp.
If you used a damp cloth wait for it to dry, and then get it ready for painting.
Step 3: Prime
This step is really important. It is crucial if you are switching colors from what it was to something lighter, or if you want really good adhesion with the new color.
I chose a plain flat white primer. The mirror was a deep green before, so I needed to bring the base a little lighter so that I could paint it the final gold color without any bleed through of the darker color.
Step 4: Paint
I chose a gold metallic spray paint for this frame. Since I primed it lighter, the gold color coverage was great and I didn’t have an issues with color splotchiness or bleed through. I did two coats to ensure even coverage.
Then I placed the mirror back inside the backside of it.
I used hot glue around the edges to help hold it in. Mirror or framing staples would be ideal, but I didn’t have any and I wanted to finish it and get it done. Nobody will see the backside anyways.
Here it is all hung up on the wall in my living room to show it off, but I can’t wait to actually hang it in my bathroom once it is done. The ORC challenge ends this week, and we are nowhere close to being done, but we are going to just keep chugging along as fast as we can.
Thanks for stopping by! To see how I fixed this mirror in depth with Bondo see my post about repairing furniture with Bondo HERE.
-Amanda