Giving New Life to an Old Mirror

Nick has finally secured some time to help me out with a few projects. There are so many times when I am grateful that my husband is a Mr. Fix-it. He can fix almost anything or find someone to tell him how. He has been extremely busy with the boats and trying to get in a few days of crawfishing before the season closes the end of this month so I have had a few projects waiting for him.

This mirror was in the Master Bedroom vanity area prior to the renovation. The office/junk room has become its home since then. I decided this past weekend that I wanted to use it somewhere and spruce it up a bit. Our dining room is a bit lackluster at the moment and there are presently no mirrors in that room so I decided the mirror would go in there. Then to decide on the color!

I have had a thing for citron yellow for a little while now and I figured that color would make for a cool mirror frame. We also have some watercolor paintings in the dinning room and that color is in one of the paintings. I went to the paint store is search of a can of spray paint in my color then home to start my project!

This is the mirror before disassembling or painting.

I put the mirror on a table on the back patio and unscrewed all the screws that held that backing onto the mirror frame. I realize my choice of tool must be confusing but we did not have a flat head screwdriver that was narrow enough to fit in the groove of the screw head. I did find this spatula type tool that fit perfectly and did the job quite well!

 

 After removing all of the screws and the backing I pulled the mirror out of the frame. 

The frame was rather dusty so I ran a scrub brush over the frame a bit. I also used a Q-tip to clean in those small holes. I was so surprised as to how much dust had collected in those holes. 

I put the frame down on an old piece of plywood that we had and I gave it a good first coat of spray paint. I left it there to dry for a few hours before bringing it under our patio (just in case it rained). 

The next day I took the frame back outside for a second coat. This time I hung it so that I could get all the sides of the frame coated properly.

This is the part where I needed Nick's help. The mirror originally hung horizontally but I wanted the mirror to hang vertically. This means the holes for the fastener (which attaches the wire to the frame) needed to be changed. Here Nick took the fastener and marked out where the new holes needed to be drilled. 

Nick drilled the holes through the backing and into the frame where he had marked. He then put the screws in to secure the fastener to the frame. 

We shortened the wire since the distance between the fasteners was now shorter. Nick then took to the wall. Measuring to find the center then drilling holes for two screws. He decided it would be best to hang this mirror with two screws rather than one. The mirror is mighty heavy and the wall is sheet rock. Using two screws will allow the weight to be distributed in two spots rather than one. 

And here it is all done! 

You can catch a glimpse of our super fabulous pineapple lamp that sits on our entry way table from this photo as well. Eventually the paint on the wall will be changed (look forward to our dinning room reno!) to better accommodate my yellow mirror. But for now I love this little ray of sunshine on this wall. 

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