Easy Mirror Makeover – From Drab to Fab

It’s amazing how a lick of paint can transform a fairly ubiquitous looking thrift store find into something that is custom-made for your space. It’s a great budget option for updating a boring old piece of furniture, picture frame, or in my case, a mirror.

We recently renovated our powder room and for months it was mirror-less. To be honest I didn’t realise how expensive mirrors were. Luckily I found one that was the perfect size in my local Op-Shop, a bit pricey at $60, but because it was perfectly proportioned to the space it needed to fill, I overlooked the price-tag and the awful pine frame.

Here’s what the mirror looked like before I painted it. It wasn’t super offensive, but the yellow colour of the wood clashed with the darker wood finish of the cabinets, and the wood grain was a little busy against the wallpaper. I wanted the wallpaper to be the hero of the room, so a colour that would recede into the pattern was my aim.

The lovely folk from Annie Sloan have always been helpful when it comes to supplying product samples for me to test out, so I reached out for a paint chart and some paint.

I wanted the mirror to be the exact blue as the blue in the wallpaper, but there wasn’t an exact match on the chart so I had to mix it myself.

I selected 2 blues that I thought would mix to my desired colour, but the bright blue was too bright. Luckily I had some Charcoal coloured paint left over from an older project, so I used that to dull down and darken the lighter blue.

Because the paint darkens quite a lot when it dries, I had to patch test and dry as I was mixing until I got the perfect colour match. My hair dryer came in handy.

With the perfect colour mixed, or close enough anyway, it was time to tackle the mirror makeover.

How to Makeover a Mirror Frame with Chalk Paint

You will need:

• Mirror with a wooden frame
• Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in desired colour
• Annie Sloan Chalk Paint Clear Wax
• Paint brush
• Painters Masking tape
• Soft cloths for applying and buffing wax
• Paper or cardboard to protect surface
• Paint scraper blade

How to:

1. Tape off the mirror as neatly as you can, it will save you cleaning up the glass down the track. Taping around the curve was a little tricky. No other prep work is required as Annie Sloan Chalk Paint sticks to clean oil free surfaces without priming or sanding.

2. Go ahead and paint, letting the paint dry between coats. I only required 2 coats to get good coverage.

3. Touch up any spots you missed and allow to dry.

4. Once the paint is fully dry, carefully remove the masking tape. If any paint has seeped under the tape, gently use a paint scraper blade to clean the glass.

5. Time to apply the wax for a durable satin finish. You can use either a cloth or a brush to apply the wax. I preferred using a brush as it applied the wax more thinly and accurately. I also used my fingers to rub over any spots I’d missed.

I found the cloth applied too thick a layer of wax.

Wax is available in clear or brown, but I wanted the colour to stay unchanged so I opted for clear.

6. Give the wax a little buff with a clean cloth to give it a soft lustrous sheen. If you want a high gloss, wait 24hrs before buffing.

Clean the mirror and you’re done!

I’m pretty happy at how this little mirror makeover turned out. Such a simple change made a big difference I think.

Here’s a comparison of the mirror frame before and after to jog your memory. The space looks so much fresher don’t you think?

Also how much do you love my new wallpaper? It took quite a while to settle on a final choice, we had about 24 wallpaper samples pinned up in the powder room for about 6 weeks before we made the final decision.

Wallpaper – Korallang (black/red) From the Boråstapeter Wonderland by Hanna Werning Wallpaper Collection

Another thing. I discovered it’s almost impossible to take a good photo of a mirror, especially in such a small space.

If you are interested in a full powder room renovation post, just leave a comment, if there is enough interest I’d write one over on My Poppet LIVING.

Annie Sloan generously provided their products for this mirror makeover with no obligation of inclusion on My Poppet. I was not financially compensated for featuring this product. All thoughts and opinions are my own.