Thursday, February 4, 2010

Redoing a Mirror

I know. Another mirror. But here's a step by step. I got this mirror only because it reminded me a little of the old witch in Snow White, it was 5 bucks.

 

Because I've had a few people ask about how to redo a mirror, I thought I would do a step-by-step.
Lots of pictures involved, so hang in there!
Wipe the mirror to get all the dust and crap off. Obviously you can use a wet rag, or just a dry rag. If you use a wet one, you'll want to wait to put the Kilz on until it dries.

Get some Kilz. Then get one of those sprayers. You will not be sorry. I promise. Prime:
 
  
Spray in different angles to get in all the different crevices and creases. 
Wait for the primer to dry. About 2.2 seconds. But you should wait for 15 to 30 minutes. While you wait read these:



Drink one of these:



And tackle this:



Oh, and make these:



Then paint:
 
I chose granite in Satin this time. I was nervous about it. But, I fell in love.


So, while waiting to do the second coat, I sprayed these:


They look awesome on the mantel in a glass vase.
After the mirror is dry to the touch, you can scrape the paint off the mirror. Remember, this is the easy way out. Obviously if you use tape, it would work too. But, I like the razor blade method.


Take your razor at about a 45 degree angle and start pushing. Generally it just slides right under the paint. 


I scrape it all off, even the center where the paint hardly touches. I have tried using nail polish remover and although that works, I find that you can't get right up to the edge of the mirror because it will take the paint off the frame too. But it does work well to get the paint off your fingers!
 After you scrape all the paint off with your razor, grab some of these:


And wipe it down:


And you're done:


And hung:



So, on the other mirror I used Ralph Lauren Smoke Glaze. Get it while you can, because Home Depot is discontinuing RL paint.

And we put it here:



 

Love, love, love.

One more:
 
We've had this mirror since the beginning of our marriage. It was purchased at an antique store in the Northwoods. I love this mirror. A lot. I loved how chippy and old looking it is. And then I got sick of the yellow. And so I painted it blue. Like this tiny table.

And I didn't like it. So, I got out my other bff, Black Suede and painted over it. Scuffed it up and now the blue and yellow come through and I looovvvee it.


 
Hello, me!

It's bold and makes a statement. Cool. And, Tom hasn't even noticed...

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15 comments:

  1. It looks great! I love the color you chose & especially love that it's a Snow White mirror!

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  2. hi! love the mirrors! great job! ps: what i do...i recently made a chalkboard from a mirror. i didn't want to paint over the mirror because i wanted to have the choice to use it sometime in the future if i wanted to. so i just took the mirror out of the frame to paint everything. (i painted the back of the mirror with chalkboard paint).
    anyway, that's a much easier and less messy way to paint if you don't want to have to scrape. :)
    -Sierra

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  3. Thanks for the tutorial on the mirror, I love it and picked up a lot of tips. Your other mirrors turned out fabulous as well!!

    xoxo
    Janie

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  4. Um, hi...can you tell me about those, what appear to be coasters?? We JUST moved to NC from CO and have never experienced the sweaty glass thing before, so I am in need opf coasters but do not like ANYTHING I have found. Please, please, pretty please? ;)

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  5. more on coasters for me too please...and I love the mirrors...thanks...

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  6. Beautiful mirrors! Came out so elegant! Love it!

    Cheers!
    Tina

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  7. Aren't those great coasters! I have finally decided to make some for my own house. You can read about them here:

    http://tkthor.blogspot.com/2009/12/mother-in-law-present.html

    I first made them for my MIL for Christmas, then I made some for my SILs and my follower winner and a friend...

    They are super easy, and super fun....I can't wait to make some more and say a bunch of fun stuff on them!

    Let me know if you have more questions!

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  8. I love all the mirrors! Paintings is so much fun, isn't? :) Thank you for sharing with us.
    Sandra

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  9. OH, they both look great! I love that grey color! (BTW, my home depot told me that they would still stock the RL galze, but they have discontinued all paints. Is this true?...I don't know for sure, but you might want to ask yours, too....)

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  10. I give you $10 for that beautiful mirror!!! What a deal you found!

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  11. I have a thing for mirrors and I would have grabbed that up in a heartbeat. Just beautiful!

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  12. Hooray! Some awesome ideas for painting mirrors...I will use these tips whilst I transform the miriad mirrors I picked up in the last weeks for my wall collage.

    Wish me luck!

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  13. Thanks for the great tutorial. I've always just taped mine, but for curvy mirrors this certainly looks quicker.

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