We love that today’s styling leans away from everything being matchy-matchy. Older furniture sets are often broken up and refinished, not as a set, but as individual unique pieces. An older dresser might see new life as a media console or even in a front entryway.
Needless to say, this trend has meant we’ve accumulated some random pieces over the years that haven’t quite been made-over along with the others. And what we have the most of, is old dresser mirrors (well actually, it’s a close second to buffet hutches.
BEFORE: one of several we had lying around.
Mirrors are one of the easiest pieces to restyle. In 3 easy steps you can transform an old mirror into a show piece for any room in your home.
Step 1 – clean and prep
First check out what you’re working with. How is the mirror attached to the frame? If it can be easily separated, you can save yourself some prep work by carefully removing the mirror and placing it aside while you work on the frame. Stuart wants me to emphasize “carefully” – you can probably guess why.
If the mirror is really stuck in there, just leave it as you don’t want to risk breaking the mirror. Get some newspaper and trace around the frame. Cut out the paper as traced then use painter’s tape to secure it right along the edge of the frame.
Give the frame a light sanding, remove all the dust with a tack cloth then apply a layer of a good primer like Zinsser’s 1-2-3.
Step 2 – paint
Now the fun starts! Choose any kind of paint, chalk, latex, milk, mineral, in any color that suits your fancy. It’s almost spring around these parts so we chose Benjamin Moore’s gossamer blue. Because a mirror frame is so small, you only need a small amount of paint and can get away with buying only a sample size pot. Yay for saving money! You can read about our technique for getting a smooth paint finish here.
Step 3 – add some character
To really give an old mirror some modern charm, add a quote decal. We choose the classic “hello beautiful” decal which we purchased on Etsy for $10 USD, including shipping. The decal was super easy to install and came with complete instructions.
- Measure the centre of the mirror and line up the decal. Mark the decal and the mirror.
- Remove the backing from the decal and apply it sticky side down to the mirror.
- Use a credit card to squish out the air pockets.
- Slowly peel back the top paper.
If you are going for an aged or modern farmhouse look, you can apply some distressing techniques to the frame as well (you can read more about distressing or aging techniques here.
Finally, make sure to protect all your hard work by applying a top coat such as a polycrylic spray.
Hello beautiful indeed! I can think of a few places in our home where this would fit in nicely. What do you think? Front entryway? Bathroom? Bedroom? We’d love it if you’d take a minutes to leave us your thought in the comments below.
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