Hello! I hope you are having a fabulous day! This week has been cloudy with an amazing monsoon here in Tucson. I LOVE it! It is so nice to be back in the 70's and 80's with a chance of rain instead of 110 degrees and sunny! Only a few more months until "winter," right?
This week I have been working on things that all take forever 8- 24 hours to dry before I can do the next coat! It is sooo hard for me to wait that long, so I'm distracting myself with scrolling through instagram and facebook and drooling over all the eye candy furniture I find. Please tell me I'm not the only one!
A few days ago I finished up this ah-mazing floor mirror that I want to share with you today. I started building them when I went to a yard sale and scored a HUGE mirror for $2, plus some ice skates. After that mirror sat for a few months, I finally got the courage to build the huge frame to accompany it. It took me forever to figure out all the logistics of building a frame of that size, that needed to support a massive mirror, but I eventually worked it out, and am in absolute love with these mirrors now.
After the first one sold, I ran into another mirror, built a frame, and after it sold, I had a client ask for another one. So this time I started searching for the perfect mirror. Luckily I found the perfect solution with old mirrored closet doors. You know the ones with the bright gold trim? Once the metal trim is taken apart, the mirrors are in perfect condition and ready to be repurposed!
For the frame I make sure to get Pine wood with as many knots and character as possible, without taking away the structural ability. After the wood is cut to the correct measurements to fit the specific mirror I grab my secret weapons; a small rock with a sharp edge, a medium size rock that has sharp edges and weighs about 5 pounds, and my putty knife that has a decently sharp edge. All of these play a part in distressing the new wood to make it look old and reclaimed. The medium rock is dropped on the wood, the small rock makes deep scratches in the wood, and the putty knife runs along the edges to remove the perfectly sawed off edge.
If you lived in my neighborhood, you would also see me dragging wood up and down the street and through the rocks in my yard to get even more distressing marks. I may or may not have gotten some really interesting looks from my neighbors when doing this though.. so if your neighbors already think you are crazy, go for it. If your neighbors think you are a normal human being, you may want to avoid the awkward looks and skip dragging wood up and down your street.
Once the wood is heavily distressed and all my frustrations are out I quickly sand everything down and remove all the dust left behind. I have found that it is easier to stain before everything is assembled since the front and back both need stain. I stain the back, flip it over and stain the front, then sit the boards on a couple of pieces of wood to get air under and let the boards dry.
After I impatiently wait for the stain to dry, I grab my amazing Kreg Jig Mini. One day I will get a bigger one, but for now the Mini will do. This tool is a lifesaver. If you build things, and don't have a Kreg Jig, stop what you are doing and get one. The Mini was only $20, and it changed my life. No more trying to use braces to hold joints together! Seriously, life changing!
For my frames I Kreg Jig the joints together, building an amazingly strong frame. It's amazing I tell you! The frame is finally built and ready for the mirror!! I attach the mirror with offset clips that screw into the back of the frame, and cradle the mirror. For a mirror this large, I use a lot of them! I sure don't want the mirror to be moving around!
The winning moment is when the mirror is secured and my husband helps me lift the beast up so we can see the front. It never gets old seeing how cool these rustic mirrors turn out! From something so old and outdated to fresh and new!
With my crazy lady status of distressing, its hard to tell that the wood really isn't reclaimed. Each one is one of a kind, and ready to bring so much more light into your home. Just yesterday I was getting ready and I snuck over to this mirror to make sure I was good to go before I left the house. I even caught my husband standing in front of it, fixing his shirt in the mirror! I love that you can stand inches away from it and see your whole entire reflection! Even for tall people! I have a smaller "full size mirror" that makes you stand at least 5 feet away just to see your entire reflection! Not with this massive beast!
I hope you like it and thank you for following along! I hope you have an amazing week! I always love to hear from you! Please leave a comment below or find me on Facebook!
