It’s the New Adventures of Old Mirror up in here, dudes.
A friend gifted me this mirror a couple of years ago. It didn’t match my stuff, but I knew it was a great piece that I could somehow work with, so I happily accepted her generousity.
First off – this thing is big. Like, 38″ x 48″ x 2″ and heavy big.
It was very classic and traditional in style, with several embellishments on its red and gold frame. In all of its intricate crevices, there was a decent layer of clay-like, caked-on dirt.
I knew that spray painting it a fun, bright color would accomplish two very important things: a) it would match my stuff and 2) I would like the looks of it more!
But first I had to clean it. I tried jut blowing the dirt off with my hair dryer first. Ha! That dirt didn’t budge. Then I tried soapy water with a toothbrush. That just turned the dry clay-like dirt into wet clay-like dirt, and moved it around but didn’t clean it off. Also, after it took me a whole five minutes to cover about one square inch with the toothbrush, I ditched that method.
This is when I temporarily “gave up”. Do you ever do that? Lots of times I get frustrated with a project and I bail. Ninety percent of the time I go back and finish but sometimes, the juice just ain’t worth the squeeze.
Anyway, my final attempt to clean the frame (two weeks later) came in the form of a thick-bristled cleaning brush that I used to dry-brush the dirt off of this thing. You guys, my arm got SOOO TIRED. I brushed it as hard as I could for a good 45 min. Then I thought, “okay, if the dirt isn’t coming off with this much force, I’m just gonna spray paint right over it and hope for the best”. And that, friends, is exactly what I did.
Check out how great it turned out!
I had zero issues with the spray paint adhering, and I’m confident it will hold up well over time. My best tips and tricks for spray painting household objects can be found here.
I used Rustoleum Painter’s Touch 2X Ultra Cover Paint and Primer in One (say that ten times fast), which I’ve used before with great success. The color is called Key Lime and I used the gloss finish. I feel like changing the finish of this very ornate mirror to a high-shine, vibrant color creates such a fun juxtaposition!
I hung it over my 2×4 expedit unit in my dining room, and I love it there, but I’m already staring to redocorate the room around it in my head!
Before:
After:
That builder’s special boob light has GOT to go. And I’ve already got a plan to IKEA-hack that expedit. And I need to do something with that wall on the right.
I really need to find that elusive affordable tulip style dining table I’ve been searching for to give this room a little more cohesiveness. Plus, once I refinish my sexy cantilever dining chairs, they’d look preeeety handsome pulled up under a tulip table, yes?
Anyone else working on giving new life to an old item? Hit me up in the comments!
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