Custom Framed Mirror

Forgive me for my absence! I have been completely inundated with work lately. But, it took me to Vegas for three days, so how can I complain? I am barely just catching up with sleep. I’m a nine hour sleeper, so when I start only getting four or five hours of sleep at night, it ruins me. But now that I’m back to reality, hopefully my body will get there with me J

So, this is a dumb thing to wish, but when we first moved into our house I wished that the builders didn’t put up any mirrors. I am not a fan at all of builder-grade mirrors that lack any dimension or character in the least. But alas, they did. And so I was stuck with them.

I know, I know, I could have pulled them down and put ones I liked back up in its place, but then that would be wasteful, both with money and materials. So, for years now, ever since we moved in, I’ve been wanting to change the darn things. I’ve been making frames for ages now, so I figured that would be the most cost effective way to change the mirrors for cheap. And now, two years later, blogland has also decided that’s the easiest way! There are tutorials everywhere on how to do it. So, here’s mine:

Materials:

Casing (enough to fit around mirror) My mirror was 3’x2’

Miter saw

Paint

Painters tape

Waterproof Silicone

The reason I chose casing instead of decorative molding or baseboards was because they are meant to frame things, i.e. doors. So the edges are already rounded and finished plus I loved the look of it better than any other thing at the store J

So first off, I painted the casing. Front and back. Its important to paint the back or at least the top inch of the back because you will see it in the reflection of the mirror.

Next, I measured three feet on two of the pieces and two feet on the other pieces and used those measurements as the longest edges. I used my miter saw from there, cutting the pieces at 45 degree angles.

Before I attached the casing to the mirror, I taped it up first to make sure the measurements and angles were correct.

Next, I took the silicone and applied it to the back side of the casing. Making sure to stay an inch away from the top (the top referring to the casing that was going to be on the inside of the frame) as to not see the silicone in the mirror reflection –even though it was clear.

And finally, after placing the casing piece by piece on the mirror, I secured it with painters tape for a couple of hours.

After two years of waiting for something different other than a boring ol’ builder-grade mirror, I finally have it!

And now that my husband trusts me, I’ll be off to finishing off all the mirrors in our house J

 But until then...here's a peak at my next project:

Oiy....oh boy.