Mirror, mirror

I wasn’t kidding when I said everything that stood still was getting painted. Remember this mirror from my mantle?



It needed updated to fit in with the rest of the changes around here. This was a fun, easy, can-do-no-wrong project. Hubby brought this mirror home for me on one of his trips to Sam’s club shortly after we moved in this house. It came with two matching picture frames that I think I sold at a yard sale. I liked the mirror for the mantle and it had a home there for several years now. What made this project so easy to update was the texture on the frame. It was the perfect pallet for adding color. The pattern has a lot of recessed areas to catch paint and raised areas that catch other colors.

Originally it was sort of a brass tone or an antiqued gold. To fit in with the new color scheme, I added blue, green and brown. First, it got a coat of primer then the fun began. This was a no-fear project because if I didn’t like the look, I just added more paint until it felt right. Step one was to fill in the recessed areas with blue from one of my wall colors. Some of the smaller recessed areas got a touch of green. (I plan to use that color as an accent color in the room). Then I covered the frame in brown paint (another wall color). I added paint and then wiped it off until there was just enough of each color to give the “look” I was hopping for. Now, these were the colors from the room but it felt like it was missing something. I mixed some craft paint together to get a combination of silver and black. I dry-brushed this on in random spots to give added depth to the frame. (That's my son's foot...he had to be a part of Mama's picture).

After I felt like I had enough color on then I put a coat of clear finish on the frame to give it a shine. Ta Da! A new mirror for my mantle. I can’t wait to put it in place.

BTW- the pictures don't do it justice. It looks much better in person.