Beautiful DIY Mirror for Less Than $35

This mirror may look harder to create than it actually is and it is very inexpensive as well. It cost less than $35 to make and that included the mirror. I love this mirror because you can create and tailor it to your own decor and style. Let's begin :-)

This mirror cost me $15 dollars at Ross. I bet you could find one cheaper at a thrift store. It measures 12"x24". I was worried about that size being too heavy, but with everything I added, it barely made a difference. I wouldn't go too much bigger or you may have a difficult time finding enough knicknacks to attach.

I just stapled a cutout piece of card board to the back of the mirror for support. Then I covered the front of the mirror with newspaper and painters tape to keep the glass from getting paint on in.

Make sure your mirror frame is cleaned, then give it a coat of spray paint. I just used a flat white. I didn't want mine to be too glossy. You can see in this image how the paper and tape are protecting the glass. Make sure to paint the cardboard as well.

I went to my local thrift store and was able to grab several items for under $5. Some of which included... A wooden butterfly, silk roses, plastic fruit, pine cones with plastic ferns attached, and a plastic violin ornament. I continued perusing my home and snatched up some twigs from the front yard, an old yellow nylon rope and for some added flair I made two paper flowers to fill in some of the space. As you can see, you can pretty much grab anything that fits in with your tastes. Go knicknack hunting, you'll be surprised by what you find. The next step will be to paint those knicknacks.

I gave each of the items a couple coats of spray paint making sure to let the paint dry in between each layer. The silk roses took 3-4 coats but they turned out great as well. After everything is dry, lay out your pieces on the mirror to make sure you have enough knicknacks and that it will be arranged the way you like. Next step is to start gluing everything in place.

I started in the middle and worked my way out. It was helpful for me to glue an inch-thick piece of floral foam (also painted white) to the cardboard and mirror so that I could poke the stems of the flowers into it for better hold. When everything is in place, step back a few feet or even have someone hold it up for you to make sure you have enough coverage and there are no gaps. Final step will be to give it one last coat of paint.

Now that everything is in place and looking awesome it is time to give the entire piece one last coat of paint. This is to ensure that there is no dark showing and everything is one uniform color. In this up-close image you can see the fruit in the left top corner, one of my homemade paper flowers in the top right and the butterfly in the center. The following is the mirror on a couple different backdrops just to give a better idea on the detail.

Thanks for taking the time to read through my instructable. This is a project that is really easy to do, inexpensive and can be custom tailored to your decor. I look forward to seeing what you create with this idea!

Tandy @The Gift of Thrifting.

http://www.thegiftofthrifting.com/white-diy-mirror/