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A Mirror Makeover

Thank you to everyone who weighed in on my last DIY Gone Bad last week! Since those chairs will eventually be moved to the basement, I decided not to put too much effort into making them over. Instead, I rearranged my living room furniture to hide the hideous paint job and we are just going to ignore that eyesore and carry on with life. Yep, that’s how I roll. I just can’t get stressed out about those kinds of things!
Thankfully I got my DIY mojo back with some other projects, starting with this mirror that I really wanted to reuse someplace in our house.
We have a matching bureau, mirror and dresser in our master bedroom. Last spring during the Color My World Challenge, in an effort to break up the matchy-matchiness of it all,  I took down the mirror and created a little gallery wall over the bureau instead.
The mirror found it’s way into the foyer where it’s been leaning up against the wall for the past few months while I mulled over what to do with it.
I like the curve on the mirror, the bevel on it and also it’s scale – the mirror is oversized on this wall and I love all the light that bounces off of it from the windows by the front door.
But – that reddish wood tone had to go. Some kind of metallic? Whitewash for an aged wood effect? Hmmmm.
While I really want to try all those fancy paints like Annie Sloan’s Chalk Paint and milk paint, I’ve got two shelves worth of paint cans and spraypaint in my garage staring me down, so I figured I could use what I have.
After much hemming and hawing, I taped newspaper to the mirror, roughed up the frame with sandpaper and gave it all a couple coats of regular old black satin spray paint.

I distressed the mirror frame with a fine sandpaper so that a bit of the wood tone could peek through, but after giving it a coat of poly, it still looked a little blah to me.

So……Rub ‘n Buff to the rescue. It needed just a little bling!

I have Silver Leaf and Gold Leaf R&B on hand so I combined the two for more of a champagne-gold.
After applying R&B with a finger, a paint brush with the bristles cropped short is great for getting into nooks and crannies.

I gave the R&B a teeny bit of distressing too, to give it a little character.

And here she is with a little autumnal styling by my 12 year old.

{This little vignette is the extent of my fall decorating this year – no word of a lie!}

I love that this big mirror reflects the fall foliage.
The dresser (previously white and stationed in my babies’ nursery) houses all my candles and whatnot. A couple coats of black spraypaint and some cute knobs from Anthro gave this piece new life.
Some day we’ll get to rip out that sweet 80s tile and install hardwoods in this little entry, and I can’t wait for that warmth of the wood with the black & white scheme. I LOVE how easy it is to change up this space seasonally.
After my big strong 14 year old gets home from school to lend me some muscle, I’ll show you how we will hang this heavy mirror so it doesn’t rip out of the wall and scare the living daylights out of me!
I’m linking up to POWW at Primitive and Proper – the most wonderful furniture makeover linky party in all the land!! {Thanks for hosting, Cassie!}

Primitive and Proper

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Comments

  1. Jessica Plattner says

    That mirror looks awesome! Every time I see photos of your home, I swear I'm looking at my own! I swear we have almost the exact same layout.

    Reply

  5. Dana Frieling says

    Glad your DIY mojo came back. It looks great. My fall decorating consists of 2 small pumpkins on my dining room table. I'm right there with ya, friend!

    Reply

  8. pam {simple details} says

    I like how you roll and paint! 🙂 It looks great with the gold detailing, and I've never thought of distressing the r 'n b. I have a wicker dresser just like that, I would love it painted black ~ I'm going to have to steal that idea!

    Reply

  15. cestMoi Sandy says

    Hi Lisa,

    I love what you did with the mirror!
    It looks great altogether.

    And uh, I got to go get me some of that R&B. I missed the post of where you showed how to use it.
    Bummer.
    But I have some chandeliers I want to spruce up… so… hmmmm rubbing and buffing maybe?

    Thanks for sharing and showcasing your lovely home with us.

    Sandy

    Reply