Weekend Project - Framing a bathroom mirror

Last week on the Better Homes and Gardens TV program, they showed how to renovate a whole house on the cheap. One of the projects was to freshen up an old bathroom with a few quick changes, and one of them was framing a mirror to give it a contemporary look.

Both our bathrooms were renovated recently, one about 1 year ago and our en-suite was finished just a couple of months ago, but I liked the idea of the framed mirror.

The mirror we had in the main bathroom had gone into the garden as a backdrop to some plants.

The old bathroom mirror  in the garden reflecting some plants

The new bigger mirror we had bought to replace it, even though it's only about 1 year old was already showing signs of deterioration to the silver backing on the bottom edge, so it was the perfect candidate for this project.

The edges of the mirror showing signs of deterioration the silver lining at the back

I measured the mirror and went to the hardware store to buy two 12x12mm treated pine poles with 2,40mt length.
After making a little drawing to get the measurements right, I used a small electric hand saw to cut all the pieces. The edges were sanded and then painted.

The drawing with the measurements 

At first I used a little tin of black enamel paint that I had in the garage. The drying time of about 6 hours for each side, plus the fact that after drying it looked a bit blotchy and dull, instead of the glossy colour I was expecting, made me go back to the hardware store to buy
a spray can of black gloss enamel.
The drying time was only about 20 minutes, and because of the warm day we were having the painting and drying went quick.

Of course when it was time to assemble and glue everything somehow I miscalculated one of the inner lengths, because on one side the little connecting pieces were 1cm shorter than I needed. So back to cutting 3 little pieces, sanding, painting...

Then it was time to give the mirror a good clean and to glue the frame, bit by bit with a special silicone for mirrors (Selleys liquid nails for mirror, metal, glass).

Gluing the pieces to the mirror

                                                                                                                                                            So that everything stayed in the right spot, I left the mirror on top of a table, to allow the silicone to dry until the next day.

It was now time to hang the mirror back in the bathroom and admire my handiwork!

Sadly I forgot to take a picture before taking the mirror down, and the only other picture I have of the bathroom was after our renovations but with no mirror yet! 

Now those ugly edges are covered and the mirror has a modern look too.

 

The final product !

In our recently renovated en-suite we still don't have a mirror as I have been looking around for something I liked, but the old mirror was still sitting in a corner awaiting a second life, so I thought I would use that mirror and do it with a white frame, and I'm already halfway through the project. I will post the photo of the finished product in a couple of weeks, as I have to buy some corners to hold the mirror in place, and wait for my husband to be home to drill the tiles to hang it.

The white wood pieces for the en-suite mirror

Hope you enjoyed the project and feel inspired to do your own. It only takes a few hours and gives the bathroom a new look.