Coastal Mirror

I picked up this little gem the other day at the thrift store. It was in the half price room which is the reason I decided to take a chance with it. I've always liked Trumeau mirrors and I was thinking I could try to make my own version of one.

The first thing was to get rid of the ducks. I removed the paper on the back to find that the ducks were painted on the back of the glass. Both the glass and mirror were hot glued in. I tried to get the glue off but it was on pretty good. So, I decided to leave it and just scrape off the paint.

With my trusty little razor blade and some nail polish remover I was able to get it all off. Someone went a little nuts with the hot glue. I cleaned the frame and gave it a coat of Martha Stewart's Sharky Gray. All seemed to go well until I tried to age it and then the paint started to peel. There was no fixing it. It all had to come off. I had just bought some stripper for the $3 chair, so I used that. Got it clean, sanded a bit and then used PRIMER. I should have known better because the old paint was shiny and slick.

Back to square one with more Sharky Gray and then some white glaze to give it a weathered look. It's hard to see, but if you look at it next to the white shell ball you can see that it's gray.

I printed out the picture of the sailboat from The Graphics Fairy. You can find it here. You could spend a lot of time on her wonderful site looking through all that she has. Trust me. I loved that it was already old looking. I had son #3 do a little photoshop magic for me. The picture was a little too small and resizing it was making it looked stretched out too much. So he made it wider by duplicating the end of it. Then he turned down the saturation levels to give it softer gray tones. Kids come in handy now and then. Especially when they are so smart.

Here is the original picture. Already really pretty.

And then after he tweaked it. With a bit of glare that I just noticed.

I liked the way it turned out. It may find a home in the new bathroom. Speaking of the bathroom, we have walls people. Sort of. We have to wait for the inspector, yet again, to inspect the insulation and then they can drywall the inside too. It's a waiting game. 

Next time you're at the thrift store, take a chance. See what you can do with something not so attractive. Let me know, have you rescued anything lately?

Linking up to:

Domestically Speaking Power of Paint Party
Debbiedoos Garage Salen Party 
My Romantic Home Show and Tell Friday

Funky Junk Saturday Nite Special
The Graphics Fairy Brag Monday