I may have mentioned a time or two, I love a high end look, but not the high end price that comes with it. What I call "fancy pants" may come to mind now... what I call everything I love, and at a price I am okay spending.
I googled high drama mirrors and found this one below on Oka's website. With a $350.00 price tag, I said no thank you... moved on and thought now how can I find something like this, but on a much smaller budget.
Loving the black and gold, check, classic design, check, love the interior gold rim, check... price, nope.
Of course, I did find mirrors similar, but I wanted to DIY one. So, I found this mirror at a thrift store... round, check, and that is where it ended... $5.00 price tag, what?? I can handle that! So I said self, you can do this and make it look similar to the inspiration mirror! It doesn't have to look exactly, make it yours, but you can make it look identical too.
Here is what I started with...
Nice round mirror. I know farmhouse lovers may be upset that I painted this one, but I was really going after that high drama mirror... remember, it was $5.00 at a thrift store.
Using what I have around the house has always been something that I do, so this was not any different. I had the paint below left over from our front door. It is a high gloss black paint. The inspiration mirror doesn't look like they used high gloss, but use what you have, do not go out and buy something else. I like to use up what I have around the house, easy on storage, easy on the pocket book too!
I turned on Doris Day (I love her voice) and put a piece of cardboard on the table and got to work in the dining room painting.
Here I have the entire mirror painted, but closest to the actual mirror, I left for last since I had to be careful to not paint the mirror. The smart thing would have been to tape it off, but I never said I was smart and I am impatient when I am working on something. I want to get to the end fast so I can see if it will work as I have it in my mind's eye...
I got my trusty Rub-n-Buff out and went to work after I so patiently waited for the mirror to be dry... you know that is not exactly how it went... waiting will be the death of me one day. I actually turned a fan on to hurry the process.
The thing I love about Rub-n-Buff is it is forgiving and you apply it with your finger. I just used my finger as the measuring method of applying around the inside rim of the mirror. No special measuring for this gal... I am not that sophisticated or patient, remember that! I decided to add a little more drama to the mirror and put a very thin gold rim around the outside of the mirror and the inside rim. I just love Rub-n-Buff! I use it all of the time.
You can see my chandelier in this photo, in case you were wondering what the candle rings were, it is cedar. Candle rings for chandeliers are expensive so I purchased cedar napkin rings from Target. I use them on candlesticks too. And... I digress....
You can see the thin line of gold I added to the outside.
A closer picture of the interior of the mirror, I made the inside a wide band like the inspiration mirror.
You can kind of see how I added the gold to the outer ring and inside as well.
I made some changes to the buffet, removed the Christmas items, so hard to let go, but needed to move on... this project helped me to change it up.
And here she is in all of her glory hanging in the dining room. What do you think? Do you think she resembles the inspiration mirror? I really do love the classic black and gold together. The decorative pieces came from Hope Timber, and the whistle was my husbands' grandfather's. It came off one of his steam engines.
What do you think?
I will post a few more pictures of it up close on the wall below.
