Mirror, Mirror on the Wall (repurpose)

We have an old mirror that at one time was part of our living room decor. We have a better mirror now and decided to try something with the old mirror; paint it pink for our daughter to have in her room. We are very pleased with the results and hope this encourages others to repurpose items no longer used.

Materials

• Old mirror
• Screwdriver
• Wipes (antibacterial works well and dries quickly)
• Paint - we used a single can
• A location to spray the frame without worrying about the overspray
• Time... everything takes time

Disassemble the mirror by taking everything off the frame that you don't want to be painted. You could go as far as masking off the mirror with tape but I had some help and I was teaching.

The frame of our mirror is plastic and the mirror itself is secured to the back with two layers of single wall cardboard. The outside cardboard layer is larger and mounts to the frame with screws while the inside cardboard layer is a buffer for the mirror.

Once you have your frame disassembled you need to prep the surface for paint. This mirror had collected some dust which needed to be removed - dust will be bad for paint. I used a couple of antibacterial wipes to clean up the frame and free it from dust. The wipes contain alcohol which helps with cleaning and it dries quickly.

I had a couple of cinderblocks that were begging for overspray so I used them to prop up the frame out in the yard.

For the paint the wife chose Rust-Oleum American Accents Ultra Cover 2x spray paint in pink. I feel like it captures the 'hot' pink look without being too much. For under $4 it is a great product for painting plastic and it only took one can for our 73x103 cm frame. I was able to apply a couple of solid coats with one can.

I suggest spraying a solid base coat, let it stand for about an hour, and then spray it again.

After letting the paint dry you will need to reassemble the mirror. Make sure you lay the frame on something soft so the fresh paint doesn't scratch.

We have a little princess in the house and she loves looking at herself while dancing and making faces. We took a couple of nightstands to create the illusion of a vanity. The stool from a previous project was upgraded with paint, foam cushion, and receiving blanket.

She loves it! We are going to stencil "You Are The Fairest Of Them All!" on the wall above it.