Monday, April 15, 2013

Tutorial: Wood Framed Mirror


Last weekend, my mom called me up and insisted we make these mirrors she saw on the Shanty-2-Chic blog. I'm always up for anything, so all I had to do was convince Adam (and my dad) to help us cut the wood. 

what you will need:
mirror (walmart has them for $5), 2- 1x4's, gorilla wood glue, staple gun, liquid nails, wood stain

I was slacking and didn't take any pictures, so I will do my best to describe the process.

We started by removing the plastic frame from the mirror. To start, remove the paper backing off the mirror and cut the glue. To avoid cracking the mirror (yes we know from experience) pull the plastic away from the mirror after the paper backing and glue is removed. 

The next step is cutting the wood. Each mirror will vary in size, so your measurements may vary. 
2- 52" 
2- 16"
(both measurements are at the long points of the wood)

Once the wood was cut, we glued the frame together using gorilla wood glue and reinforced it with the staple gun. When the glue dried, we began to stain. We ended up doing two coats. 

The last step was to attach the mirror. We applied liquid nails to the back of the frame on the middle edges. We found it easiest to set the mirror on the frame and trace it before applying the glue so we knew where the glue needed to be. Once the glue was applied, we attached the mirror and gently pressed down on the edges.




My mom used dark walnut wood stain, which I loved
I am seeing another mirror or two in my future with this stain. This would look great in my guest bedroom!


I decided to put our mirror in our bathroom, so I decided on Ebony Minwax stain. It looks great in our bathroom, and will one day actually be hung on the wall.

The best part about this project was that we already had the mirror, stain, and most other supplies. All we needed to purchase was the wood and the liquid nails. This simple and easy project makes me want a mirror in every room of the house. Even Adam loved that he was able to get out the saw and help out.

Have you tried this or plan to try it in the future?
Aren't projects so much more fun when you work on them with others?