Mirror, Mirror

Despite a few setbacks (ahem, broken mirror)...

...the mirror project is complete!

Because of the mishap, I had to bite the bullet and buy another UNG DRILL mirror from Ikea. Since I already had the frames painted, I just detached the mirror from the new UNG DRILL and put it in the already-painted frame. I'll either sell the unused frame or donate it to a friend. Any local takers?

Anyhoo, I used this tutorial from the Bemz blog to paint the frames and get a bit of that shabby sheek look. First you detach the mirrors from the frames. Then you rub the edges and corners of the frames down with a candle (the wax keeps the paint from sticking to the frame in key areas). Sounds weird, but it works.

Then spray paint away.

After the paint has dried, gently sand the corners and edges to expose the original black underneath.

The effect is a worn look that just makes the mirrors a bit more interesting.

After my incident with the 3M strips, I decided to take my chances and just nail the mirrors into the wall. Luckily, the patch stayed in tact and didn't crack at all. Whew. The patch is behind the mirror on the left:

So lessons learned from this project:

1. Don't trust the weight specifications on the 3M adhesive strips.

2. Don't listen to your husband when he tells you not to nail through the patches in your wall (it may just turn out ok in the end).

3. Spray paint is still the cat's meow.