On reflection…Making a Mirror

written by:Cassity Kmetzsch

About a month ago my friend Em called me asking about remodeling.   Her husband was going out of town for the weekend, and she had HUGE plans for the master bed and bath.  She was wondering if she could do it all, and she was very hopeful.  Since she knew that Justin and I have been doing things like this for almost 8 years now, she was hoping to get an idea of time and cost.

I went over to have a look.  While the ideas were fabulous, the time was short.  So, I talked her into a few basic changes, for the moment.  She is after all, the busy mom of three and had only three days.  Instead of the huge design, we talked about painting each room, the vanity, a piece of furniture or two, adding curtains, hanging art, and accessorizing. 

One thing she really wanted to do was get rid of the huge double vanity mirror.  She was worried though about having to repair the wall.  While looking at the mirror I was immediately struck with a genius idea.  I asked for a screwdriver and climbed up on her counter top, yeah, we are that good of friends, in my defense, I wasn’t wearing shoes… I think, I could be wrong.

Anyway, I unscrewed the little mirror clip at the top of her huge bathroom mirror, and found out that it was not glued to the wall (score definitely no repair).  Once I was sure, I had to share my genius idea (that I have now been planning on using for my own similar mirror at home). 

If she removed this mirror and glued it to a sheet of OSB approx. $5.00 (cut to size at Home Depot or Lowes) with some builders adhesive approx $4.00 and then wrapped it with some molding approx $1.00 per linear foot, it could be leaned against one of the walls in her huge bedroom.  

In essence, for a total of no more that $30 dollars she could have a $300.00+ mirror not unlike these examples:

This is from Jennifer’s house at The Old Painted Cottage
Thanks Jordan for helping me remember the source!
(this black mirror is available is on sale for a cool $720.00 uh gulp!  Normally $1139.00)
Anyway, by building this framed mirror it would accomplish two things.  Give her a huge new piece for her remodel, with almost no cost and get rid of the huge mirror where she didn’t want it.  She loved the idea.  A day later, when her husband had left we came over and took down the mirror.
And, well, actually Justin ended up building the frame for them.  It was harder than it would have been at our house…  Tools are like your old friends, you know them and how to use them, where you store them and on and on.  So figuring out someone else’s system took a while.  But after a few hours we had a beautiful mirror all put together.
So here is a partial picture of the before:
Here it is with a frame in place!  Too cool.
If you would like to see it all click the whole remodel story.  I can’t wait til we get going on our master bath and I get to make my very own!!!  Stay tuned, although it may be until next summer honestly, but we have plenty to do until then!  Sigh….
Here is the tutorial for how we built the mirror:
(please excuse my rough sketches we didn’t take photos!)
ps If you don’t have a huge bathroom mirror you could try one of those old sliding closet doors!

Here is the printable instruction sheet.  Just save the image.  You may have my permission to use this for your own home projects but not on your personal blog without first contacting me.   Thank you!

You should also check out our other cool how to tutorials!
Remodelaholic is written by Cassity and Justin.  Cassity has a degree in interior design and Justin is a landscape architect, so we adore everything that makes up a HOME!  We love to share home remodeling ideas and projects we’re working on. From huge kitchen renovation ideas to small bathroom remodels, there isn’t anything we won’t try to tackle (at least once!).  We are in the midst of our third whole home renovation, so there should be a lot more inspiration coming your way.  We hope that you will stop by often for home design inspiration, tutorials, interior design tips, delicious recipes and what is going on in our family life.


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58 Comments

  2. >I love that mirror in the first one! It's from the home of Jennifer at theoldpaintedcottage.blogspot.com. { I adore her kitchen too!} I need a huge mirror too, I've decided…

    I'm also contemplating doing this to a sliding mirrored closet door. Hmmmm…. the possibilities!

    Reply

  3. >Hey remodelholic…thanks for your help! As said husband of said remodel, I was very appreciative of the help you and your handy husband gave my wife. She is very awesome and creative (like you), and it makes me feel good to know we have good enough friends to run over on a whim and help her out. Thanks for not letting her hurt herself or spend too much money…unnecessarily:) I can't wait to see what you guys with your bathroom…and of course give me a call if you need help:)

    Reply

  4. >I would love to be featured on your blog. I am always working on some prohect–I just can't sit still very long-except to blog.

    Cheri
    ItsSoVeryCheri.blogspot.com

    Reply

  5. >What a brilliant idea! I love when people think of creative ways to use old pieces. Great job! Loving your site — just stopped in from SITS and I'll be back soon!

    Reply

  6. >I have a mirror leaning on my wall in the closet from a remodel – I've been wanting to get it out of there. Thank you for the brilliant idea!

    Reply

  8. >Great idea! Wish I had an old mirror to take down & do that to. Too many of those giant mirrors get broken & thrown away. Looks amazing!

    Reply

  9. >GORGEOUS! wILL you please be my friend? I am going to feature this tomorrow at somedaycrafts.blogspot.com. Grab my "featured" button. This should drive you some traffic and hopefukky get you more followers!

    Reply

  10. >Absolutely genius! I see free bathroom mirror for free on Craigslist all the time. I'm going to have to grab the next one I see. Thanks!

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  15. >It looks really great and I love your drawings and directions. This was a great use for a huge bathroom mirror. Nice work!

    Reply

  16. >What an awesome idea! they sell these big mirrors for around $30 at our hardware store – I may a new project!!

    Reply