Bathroom Mirror Makeover

Our bathrooms are on the top of my "to update" list for the interior of our home.  They have those old nasty crystal-y sink nobs, builder grade mirrors and big, gigantic lights.  When we repainted our kitchen cabinets (check out that post here), we also painted the vanity in the downstairs bathroom (the upstairs ones were already done, how nice), which also helped give a quick and cheap face lift.  Next thing to tackle was the huge, boring mirror.

I've been seeing DIY mirror frames all over Pinterest, so after some researching, I decided to give it a shot.  Luckily, I already had the moulding.  When the previous owner flipped our house, he installed new moulding and left us four 12ft sections of leftovers in the garage...perfect.  The only thing I actually had to purchase was the glue.  Make sure you get glue that is for mirrors!  I originally bought some heavy duty adhesive (I figured, it has to work it says HEAVY DUTY) but then read that it was absolutely not for use on mirrors.........so I went back and got this:

Unfortunately, 12ft pieces of moulding were not going to be easy to transport to my Dad's (so that he could do the hard work with the chop saw) so Steve and I did some rough measurements and he cut them down to a more manageable size.  We actually added moulding to all three of our bathroom mirrors so, after we cut them, I labeled them so I wouldn't forget which piece went to which mirror.  Dad cut 45 degree angles on the edges and made sure the pieces fit together to make a nice frame.

(make sure you have the same edge on the outside...my moulding was thicker on one edge than the other, we put the thinner edge on the outside)

Like many other people's experience, those lovely builder grade mirrors come with lovely builder grade mirror clips.  Some people recommended replacing them with flat washers but I wasn't about to take anything apart and screw it up, so instead I whipped out the dremmel and created some notches to fit over the clips.  I just held the moulding up on the mirror and marked with a pencil where the clips were and went to work using the wood cutting attachment.

I then set to work gluing the pieces directly to the frame.  Looking back, I should have painted the back of the moulding first because you can see the edge of in the reflection of the mirror, but it's not really that big of a deal.  (I don't suspect people will be inspecting my mirror that closely, but now if you're at my house I'm sure you will...) 

You want to make sure your glue isn't too close to the edge of the moulding or it will seep out and you can see it in the reflection of the mirror.  I made this mistake on one piece but once again, it's not that big of a deal...my vase covers it up! I stuck the moulding to the mirror and had to press it on for a minute or so for it to adhere, then I just taped it up with some masking tape.

 (notice the nice streak of glue on the mirror...I didn't hold the top piece on long enough and it slipped...the glue came right off with some denatured alcohol though!)

I left the mirrors to dry overnight and came back with some caulk the next day.  The piece didn't fit together perfectly but I just filled in the gaps with paintable caulk and it was fine.  Definitely make sure you smooth out your caulk though because sanding it is a realllllll pain. I let that dry for a few hours and then painted the moulding using left over paint from our kitchen cabinets.  Then about two weeks later, finally got it glazed and coated it with the protective sealant that came in the kit for the kitchen.

They really add a lot to the bathrooms and make them look way more expensive.  They look more finished and put together, especially since they match the cabinets.  I can't wait to get new faucets and light fixtures to really finish the update!

The top few things to remember if you are going to do this project yourself:

1. paint the back of your moulding before you glue it on

2. don't put glue too close to the edge of your moulding

3. press your moulding to the mirror for a bit to let it adhere before taping it

Here's the price breakdown for the supplies:

36ft of moulding (about 12ft for each mirror) $20.00 (about $7 for a 12ft piece)

glue $5.00

caulk $2.50

caulk gun $7.00

masking tape $3.00

paint (I used left over, but a quart will run you around 10 bucks)

TOTAL: about $40 for 3 mirrors or about $13 per mirror!