Master Bath Redo: Post 2 – Framing a Mirror

Sunday, December 6, 2009

First, let me take you back to February 11, 2009 when I was doing my happy dance because my large bathroom mirror was not glued to the wall. That meant I could easily remove it and replace it with two smaller oval mirrors.

Fast forward to 10 months later. The big mirror’s back up. What? Have I gone completely crazy…ha…well, I suppose that’s all relative. My defense is that A) I’m a woman and I have the right to change my mind, and B) I’m a Gemini…’nuff said. Furthermore, members of the jury, the oval mirrors were just too small for the space, and the larger mirror lets a lot more light into the space. I hereby rest my case :-).

So I’ve been admiring the cabinet displays at Restoration Hardware for a while (see the sneaky picture I took with my Blackberry…yes, I could totally be a spy). 

Restoration Hardware Molding

I’ve also loved the mirror in this BHG bathroom that I’ve had in my favorites file forevah. BHG Bathroom

Soooo, it was pretty easy to figure out what I wanted to do. I even made a super technical, ultra fancy drawing…

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Uh huh…I know you’re impressed.

So here’s what I did to make my own version of this mirror. I had the friendly guy at Lowes cut 4 pieces of 1x4 for me…two short for the vertical pieces and two long for the horizontal pieces. I put a coat of paint on the backsides of the strips of wood because I knew they would be reflected in the mirror. I then adhered the 1x4’s to the mirror with my new best friend, liquid nails…

 IMG_2598

I then cut some rounded trim and adhered that onto the horizontal 1x4’s.

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Finally, I used my new new best friend, miter saw, to cut some crown molding to adhere onto the upper edge of the top 1x4.

Since my mirror is secured to the wall with brackets, I made sure I didn’t glue wood over the brackets so the mirror can be easily removed in the future. 

And that’s it. I’ll do a tutorial in the future about cutting crown molding (once I got the hang of it, it really wasn’t that bad…I’m serious).

And here’s a top secret photo of the finished project (I’ve grayed out the image in the mirror because A) I’m mean, and B) I can’t reveal ALL of my plans for the bathroom yet, and the reflection would give away waaay too much). Sorry…

Bathroom Mirror1

Bathroom Mirror2-1

Have a great week!

42 Suburbanites Said:

Bethany Christensen said...

Nice! Way to go. it looks great. I really like your two new best friends.

From the Old InkWell said...

Gorgeous! I want to do this one day.

Karla said...

Love, LOVE this! Hmmm...poor Will. He's going to hate it that I read this post! ;)

~Karla @ It's The Little Things...

Janell @ House of Fifty said...

You are good! Impressive job, and looking forward to seeing the rest. And yes, you are most certainly allowed to change your mind!!
Janell

BLJ Graves Studio said...

It looks fabulous!!!

Maryann @ Domestically-Speaking said...

I've been wanting to "improve" our basic master bathroom mirror. I love the look of this!!! Thanks...

Beth@The Stories of A to Z said...

It's beautiful and you should be proud of your handiwork! It looks fab.

The Chenowiths said...

Looks SOOOOOOO good! You should be ultra proud of your self! :)

Girly Stuff said...

Your a genius! And I'm doing it too!

Folkman's said...

Love the mirror! What a handy lady! Can't wait for the rest of the transformation!

Crafty Niche said...

WOW! Looks fantastic!! I need to frame my big ugly mirror. I will keep this in mind when I get to that project.

Anne said...

Gorgeous! How did you keep the pieces in place as you waited for the Liquid Nails to set?

Laurel @ Ducks in a Row said...

I totally love what you have done!

Sarah said...

I can't believe you did that! I would mess it up for sure! Looks great!

beth said...

Your mirror turned out awesome! We've been wanting to do something like that with our builder basic bathroom mirrors for a while now, and have been putting it off. Don't know why. It looks super easy. But then again, my husband would be doing it, not me. So of course it would be easy for me. :)
Have a great day!! Beth.

Sarah said...

That turned out perfect! I hate those mirrors that come standard- what perfectly stated way to jazz them up!

AnNicole@Our Suburban Cottage said...

Thanks everyone!

Get Your Martha On - The liquid nails set up pretty quickly. I did the bottom piece first and I held it there for about 60 seconds, and then added the side pieces. I made sure all of that was really set up before adding the top piece. I did put some tape over the wood to hold it in place...but really just holding it myself for a minute or two was all it needed. Great stuff...

Stacey @ The Blessed Nest said...

Love this idea! I'm TOTALLY going to do this in my girls' bathroom!!! Love, love, love! Thanks! :)
Blessings,
Stacey

bsurrounded said...

That is exactly the look I have been wanting for my bathroom window. You make it sound very easy, I think I'll give it a whirl.

Aja said...

Are you serious?? LOVE IT. I have been wanting to do this to our guest bath forever! So the Liquid Nails really hold the wood to the mirror?? No fear of it crashing down on you? I figured I would have to nail it to the wall somehow..
Great job!

Lynette said...

I am so totally copying you!! I planned on doing something like that anyway in my new house (which, btw, I closed on this past Friday - yeah me!) but, I love, love, love the way you did that upper molding piece on top instead of just going around it like a frame!

And, I went to Lowe's on the Tuesday after Thanksgiving to get a miter box like yours and 1) they were all sold out
2) the sale was over :-(
BUT - I've dropped enough hints that I really hope I get one for Christmas!

Can't wait to see the rest of your bathroom!

Amanda @ Serenity Now said...

Lovely!! I like that nice, crisp white. :) You are one talented chickie! Stop by if you have a chance...I'm having a (small) 1 Year Blogiversary/Christmas Giveaway. :)

Anonymous said...

It looks beautiful! So, does the mirror show on the side?

Micah said...

I am impressed! I am a little intimidated by any trim work...thanks for the how to:)

SugarRush said...

ok, yep..we were separated at birth for sure! i did this exact same thing in my master bath about 8 months ago. Had the guy at HDepot cut them, stained them at home, used mirror mastic/adhesive to attach them...love it, you'd never know it wasnt a custom mirror.

Anonymous said...

Well I absolutely love it and have been wanting to frame my bathroom mirror for quite some time. Now I know how to do it. I wish I'd jumped on that miter saw when it was on sale on Black Friday. Anyway -- beautiful job. I was either going to frame mine or put two round mirrors on each side of the large one. It looks beautiful framed.

Jennibell said...

This is beautiful!! Hope I get the courage to try it myself. . .

Leen said...

It's so absolutely perfect! And I am so absolutely going to copy it! Thanks so much, I have been about to take our large mirror down for years but didn't have any idea what I would do then! Problem solved!

Leen said...

It's so absolutely perfect! And I am so absolutely going to copy it! Thanks so much, I have been about to take our large mirror down for years but didn't have any idea what I would do then! Problem solved!

Roeshel said...

You did a fantastic job! I love it! :)

Happy New Year!

Roeshel

Unknown said...

LOVELY! That is a lot of hard work (and worth it)!

Kudos!

Denise

www.successinthesuburbs.blogspot.com

Nicole Leifson - Jensen said...

I LOVe IT!!! LOVE IT!!! LOVe IT!!! This is one detail to my (too many) bathrooms that I haven't even started to plot out and NoW i KnOw WhAt I'm going to dO!!! You are a genius, maybe even my new best friend - Hahaha!

Claire said...

Just found your blog through Twitter and subscribed. I love how you did this mirror. I have one of those giant ones and I can totally see this in my bathroom too! Love it.

Anonymous said...

If I give you my address will you come do my mirrors? Just kidding! kind of

Lynne said...

OK, I tried this last weekend and wanted to point out a few critical factors I learned in the process:
1. There are NUMEROUS varieties of Liquid Nails and it *does* matter which one you choose. I didn't realize how many there were so I chose a general "Projects" one. Wrong! We put up the bottom board, held it there for 4-5 minutes, took our hands off and CRASH - down came the board! Apparently there are only 2 varieties of LN that are "instant grab" - the rest require bracing and weight be applied for 24+hours! The panelling version and "ultimate" version are instant grab.

#2 - perhaps not as critical if you do white but we did chocolate brown and most varieties of LN do NOT dry clear! There is one version that does but it doens't hold well. Took us several tries to get the LN in just the right spot that it would adhere well but not reflect onto the mirror and look nasty. ALl this was tried BEFORE we realized that our LN was not "instant grab" so we applied, removed, waited, reapplied (repeat X2) THEN the board popped off.

We ran out of time to finish and had to repaint the back of the board again anyway so will try again this weekend and will post updated results. Just wanted to point these out for anyone else who might be wanting to try this - save the next person some time and money!

Thanks for all the tips and inspiration! I would never have thought to even try this on our 6 foot (!!!) mirror that is glued to the wall. Fingers crossed it works!

joyh82 said...

Love it, have to show this to my dh..have a great weekend. Glad I found your blog :)

Vanessa said...

I'd love to try this in my bathrooms!!

Whitney said...

I am loving all of these posts in blogland about framing out builders mirrors. I totally want to do it, too...but I'm going back and forth about what color I could paint it. My cabinets are are a dark cherryish wood color and I have cream counters...but white molding. UHH! As soon as I get over my indecisiveness, I'm definitely getting this project done! Great job! :)

The Hoffman Family said...

I want to do this, but my clips that hold the mirror up stick out. Did you replace those with something? Thanks!

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Hannah- Art.Paper.Scissors.Glue! said...

Hello... awesome job! Have you heard of mirrormates.com? They have these fabulous frames at reasonable costs. That's what we ended up doing because mirrors just look so much better with frames now- but everything is MUCH more gratifying when you do it yourself just because you can say you did! Nice work!

Irwin Zinkin said...

Custom mirrors are the way to go if you want to improve your bathroom today. The borders are what do it!

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