Mirror, Mirror On The Wall

Here's a quick mirror project I knocked out last week, and I'm so happy with the new light and attitude it brings to our living room.

First, a quick peek of the living room area before (sorry pic was taken at night while our sweet pea was sleeping).

We had this fabulous, large and deep mirror that was given to us as a wedding gift.  I love, love, love everything about it, but the dark wood just doesn't go with the white trim and light wall colors in the new casa.  It has been sitting in a closet since we moved in, and frankly I had thought of selling it but couldn't bring myself to do it since it was a gift.  Thankfully, though, I woke up one night last week and had an idea (insert picture of Mr. Man rolling his eyes here)!

Here's a picture of the mirror before.  I had already started doing a light sand on it with fine grit sandpaper.  I sanded for less than 5 minutes on the whole thing; no biggie.  I never spend too much time sanding and thankfully it hasn't backfired...yet.  

After sanding, I put four coats of Kilz primer on it.  Why four?  I kept seeing a lovely pinkish tint coming through the primer, so I knew the dark wood stain was bleeding through and I wanted to make sure that didn't happen.  After four coats of primer, I painted on the dark gray base color that I also have as an accent wall in the dining room (Behr's Elephant Skin).

I let that dry and then I dry brushed on basic white trim paint.  For this technique, I dipped the brush in the paint and blotted off the excess on paper towels.  Then I VERY lightly brushed over the surface of the mirror and if the paint looked too heavy, I wiped it off with paper towels.  Lets just say that it's a very forgiving technique and I didn't approach it scientifically; I followed my heart (gag!).  I think it left me with a very interesting looking paint job.  To me, it looks weathered and old, which blends in perfectly with the antique pie safe in the before photo above.

Originally, I had visions of painting it a dramatic color, like lime green,  orange, etc.  BUT, since I'm yet to put any other striking colors in the room (there are plans for that later!!), I went with something a bit safer.  And you know what?  I like it.  I kind of like that the new color doesn't pop off the wall so much and all you really see is the reflection from the window across from it.  Since the room is tiny, I think it makes sense.  Can you tell I'm trying to make myself feel better for not painting it a more dramatic color?

That said, I really do like it, and someday when I find the perfect accent fabric, I'll likely give it another facelift with the dramatic color I'm dreaming of...  For now, though, it makes me happy, happy, happy.  Which is a great reflection to see in that ol' mirror.

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