Sunday, August 1, 2010

A Vintage Mirror Dresses Up an Empty Wall

I bought a beautiful round mirror with an intricately carved wood frame at a barn sale at the beginning of the summer. I couldn't wait to give it a fresh coat of paint and hang it...unfortunately, there were pressing projects, and then, of course we got a heat wave which just wouldn't break. I usually start watching the weather on Wednesday, and immediately begin planning projects if I see that the temperature is going to be lower than 85 degrees. The mirror was top of my list this weekend.



Does anyone know a better way to protect the mirror portion when painting the frame?? This was the best I could come up with...it looks so funny...



I am very good about wearing my filtering mask (spray-painting kicks up quite a cloud of particles) - I highly recommend it when sanding or spray-painting. This frame only needed two coats.



There was more over-spray than I thought there would be...you can see it in the middle of the mirror. I took a razor blade to it & cleaned up any residual paint.




The mirror is pretty heavy, so I used a dry-wall anchor to hang it. The mirror portion is scratched and a little foggy, adding age and shabbiness to it...I just love how it dresses up this space!





It does, however, remind me how desperately the yellow bureau below it needs to be painted! For now, the vintage linen runner softens it a little. The lamp in the picture needs to be polished, and perhaps touched up with a little paint on the fake brass part...there just aren't enough weekends, but I'm never bored!!

What projects are on your list?

Mona Kay
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11 comments:

  1. KudzuAugust 2, 2010 at 3:12 AM

    i don't know of any better way :D as long as it does the job, right? lol
    it's gorgeous...i really love it!
    kudzu

    ReplyDelete
  2. Mona Kay GormanAugust 2, 2010 at 6:47 AM

    Thanks Kudzu! It does work, more or less!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Brenda PruittAugust 2, 2010 at 4:34 PM

    It's gorgeous! I have a mirror I picked up from a yard sale months ago. I keep saying I'm going to paint it. But I worried how to cover the glass as well.
    Brenda

    ReplyDelete
  4. RenéAugust 3, 2010 at 10:37 AM

    Your mirror looks great!

    -Rene

    ReplyDelete
  5. Mona Kay GormanAugust 3, 2010 at 6:16 PM

    Thanks Rene and Brenda! Brenda, mirrors are just tricky for me. This is the first one I've worked on that I haven't broken ;) Could that mean I'm one step closer to leaving "newbie" status (probably not).

    ReplyDelete
  6. JennieAugust 4, 2010 at 8:25 AM

    This mirror looks fantastic!! I have a few mirrors and picture frames that I need to paint as well. I should work on some before and after pics...I think I might just be slightly lazy.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Mona Kay GormanAugust 4, 2010 at 5:50 PM

    Jennie...or it's just too hot :)

    ReplyDelete
  8. PriorAugust 4, 2010 at 6:41 PM

    I love that mirror and I like the yellow, mellow look of the dresser, too. I broke a mirror the other day. It just dropped out of my hand after I left the store, oh, bother! It is so hot! Lezlee

    ReplyDelete
  9. Willow DecorAugust 7, 2010 at 4:36 AM

    Mona,
    What a great job you did! The mirror came out beautifully and looks so lovely in your room!
    xx-Gina

    ReplyDelete
  10. Manuela@A Cultivated NestAugust 8, 2010 at 5:42 AM

    That mirror is beautiful! What I do is I cut out a round piece of paper (newspaper,paper bag etc) and use double stick tape to tape the paper over the mirror and spray or paint away. If any paint gets on the edge of the mirror I just scrape it off with a razor blade.

    Manuela

    ReplyDelete
  11. Mona Kay GormanAugust 9, 2010 at 6:57 PM

    Thanks Manuela, that's a good idea! Thanks for stopping by, & I love your blog!

    ReplyDelete

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