Over The Apple Tree: Thrift Store Princess Mirror

Friday, March 1, 2013

Thrift Store Princess Mirror

I wanted to get a large mirror for my daughter's room for when she plays dress-up. Originally I was thinking to do something in decoden, but then I came across this fantastic mirror at my local thrift store. I know, to most people this didn't look as "fantastic" as it did to me, but the shape is what really caught my eye. When shopping in thrift stores, potential is what I'm usually looking for.

First thing you want to do is tape newspaper on the glass to protect it. In order to paint over this cheap laminate, I lightly sanded until I got most of the shine off. I then sprayed the Kilz primer and let it dry overnight. The pink paint is just one of those small samples you can get at Home Depot or Lowes. The sample sizes are really good for small projects like this, they're just a few dollars and you can pick ANY color! I did two coats of the pink and let dry overnight again.

The gold flourishes weren't too hard. I first free handed the design on one side of mirror, then traced over it on a large sheet of paper. Flip it over onto the other side of mirror and trace the design again on the back side of the paper to transfer the original pencil mark. After I had all my pencil marks done, I filled in with the gold paint. This metalic paint comes out looking really good, but it took 3 or 4 coats. To add more detail, I also used gold glitter dimensional fabric paint. This whole project is an exercise in patience...go slow! You don't want any air bubbles in this kind of paint and if you take your time to do it right, your less likely to have to try and clean up and redo mistakes.

Acrylic jewels are available at most craft stores, I got these ones at Walmart, found in the kids art isle(near the crayons). I attached these just with some Elmers glue. The beads are actually garland I found at Hobby Lobby during the holidays and I used a glue gun to keep in place.
After I had everything painted and glued how I wanted it, I did 2 or 3 coats of clear acrylic to seal everything in place. The princess of the house loves it!