mirror, mirror on the wall...

This is part of my Master Bath Redex.

To start, I just want to let you know how spoiled, and how much of a mommy's boy my yorkie is. He always sits with me, in my lap, etc. He even has to sit in the chair next to me at the kitchen table when my friends and I are just sitting around talking. So naturally, now that I have a desk again instead of a big shelf, he wants to be in my lap or right next to me. After him fussing at me constantly (he's like a little kid, never gives up fighting for what he wants), for about 10 minutes I decided that if I was going to get any work done this morning I was going to have to make him a bed, because heaven forbid he lays in the floor. SO....this is what I ended up with.

I had a storage box that's super cute & decorative, and currently stores my niece's toys. I folded a piece of fleece from my fabric stash, but apparently that wasn't good enough for him. He had to have some of my blanket. I pulled some over for him and he tugged and scratched until he had it pulled over enough to lay on. He may be spoiled a little.

Now to my latest post, my antiqued mirror.

Here is what you'll need:

-low odor mineral spirits (to clean any paint off the glass)

-flat white paint

-antiquing glaze

-as lint free as possible cloth

-foam brush

I'm a little frugal, obviously, so I just washed out my foam brush and reused it for the glaze. I try to only use 1 brush/roller per project. It doesn't always work out that way, but every bit you can save, even if it's just a foam brush, cuts down the cost of your projects.

I've had this mirror for almost 10 years and it's been more colors then I care to admit. Spite its rainbow of colors, it's never been one that I found worthy. The latest of which was this gold color, that was more yellow than gold. Can you say faux pas?  

Step 1

First I painted the entire mirror flat white. Let dry before moving to Step 2. 

(The instructions for the glaze said that it needed to be a flat paint.)

Since it was such a bright color, it took me a few coats, but I got it covered. I used a paint & primer in one because I had originally bought these supplies for a piece that was unfinished, bare wood so I knew I needed something that would cover really well. (You can sand if you want, but it wasn't necessary for my mirror, which is wood. I've tried the glaze on my painted laminate cabinets...it failed. Majorly.)

Step 2

I applied the antiquing glaze with my reused foam brush.

TIP: The longer you leave the glaze on, the darker it will be. You want to do this in sections so that you have even "antiquing". Make sure that you get the glaze in all the little nooks and crannies so that it gives that great aged look.

Step 3

You have to remove the excess glaze with an as lint free as possible cloth. I used an old receiving blanket that I cut up and use for dusting, etc.

TIP: as mentioned in Step 2, I did mine in sections, because the longer you leave it on the darker it is and I wanted an even look. Plus, if you want it darker in areas you just reapply the glaze and wait a minute before removing. If you want a part lighter, just really wipe it well and put a little elbow grease into it.

Step 4

POLYCRYLIC! This stuff is amazing. It looks like watered down milk and has a water consistency. Once the glaze was dry, I applied the polycrylic with yes, the same foam brush! (I only used 1 brush for this project...if you used one for each step then you would have used 3! Just take a minute to rinse it out.)

TIP: I chose Clear SEMI-GLOSS. My home improvement store had a little chart with different finishes and what they looked like. I like the semi-gloss because it wasn't super shiny like high-gloss and it wasn't matte. It has the perfect sheen for me :) 

Please note: This step is kind of optional. If it's a table or something that's going to be getting a lot of use, I HIGHLY recommend you seal it, weather it be with polycrylic or wax. I chose polycrylic because it's easy to apply and no buffing!! Plus I wanted to put this mirror in my master bath and didn't want to take the chance of the glaze that I worked so hard to get in the nooks & crannies, heating up with the steam of a hot shower and running.

Tah-Dah!! 

Note: I didn't clean the excess paint off the mirror yet. I decided to wait until I was getting ready to hang it. No use in cleaning it twice!

All in all this project only cost me the price of the polycrylic which was some where in the neighborhood of $12. If I would have purchased everything needed for this project it would have been something like this:

-flat white paint sample: $3

-antiquing glaze: around $15

-polycrylic: around $12

For a total of approximately $30, but I already had everything in my stash. Go buying paint by the quart! 

   Antique it!