mirror mirror

On a recent trip a few months ago, I found this nice- big mirror mirror at my favorite antique store.

This Mirror…is huge, it’s heavy and it’s old!  I loved it but I also loved the price, especially when I asked for a better price.  My niece moved into her own place a few months ago and I remember her sifting thru a catalog and pointing out how much she wanted a large -cool mirror for her place.

Well…

I ended up buying it and hauling it home to get it cleaned up, painted and looking pretty perky!  (In all honesty, I was pretty freaked that during the 13 hour drive home, somehow it would crash into a million pieces.) Thank God it didn’t!  I’d have been heartbroken!

the process

I started with removing the backing on it because it was brittle and had some water damage (as you can see),

I found this little dead beetle bug—kinda vintage & petrified.

I’m assuming she’s been trapped in there a long-long time.

Anyhow, it got a good cleaning and then I was able to make some minor repairs in order to start painting it.

Closeups

A sunflower yellow was the color of choice. Simply because I wanted it to go with her decor and it helped highlight some areas. Some antique medium helped with this process also.  It will also brighten up her space and looks way chic! Don’t you think?

I mixed up this yellow by combining some white and bright yellow acrylics together.  I then added some water and plaster of Paris to thicken it into a chalk paint.  *I love chalk paint pieces!!!

That was it!  Once she was painted, she looked so much happier!

Can’t wait to get her hung up, once we do – I will post a better picture.  I hope Jacq loves her house-warming gift as much as I do–or it’s coming back home with me 😉