This mirror project is so me in that it stopped and started about five times and sat around a long time before making it to completion. But it’s done. Want to see? I don’t have a proper before picture, but you can consult Ikea or just imagine a thin frame of unfinished wood around a rectangular mirror. I painted the frame with black craft paint, then coated that with mod podge (since it was sitting around) for a better sheen. Pretty straightforward stuff. Unfortunately, the result had one disappointing flaw. Observe:
Pardon the terrible picture, but it shows you that jagged strip of raw wood visible at the edge. While it looks like this is just the world’s worst paint job, that’s actually a reflection of the back of the frame that is pressed against the glass and therefore untouchable by paint. If this was a sturdier mirror I could probably remove the frame for painting, but I’m pretty sure that would have destroyed this cheap Swedish number.
So what to do about that darn strip of naked wood? Mostly just be disappointed and forget about this project because–as you will come to learn about me–if I can’t make it perfect, I just don’t want to make it. (Not true at all. I usually cave and accept sub-par results because I have no patience.)
I briefly considered using a small wood trim piece to cover the unwanted reflection like my parents did when classing up their builder grade bathroom mirror. The black piece, which is painted on the back, hides an unwanted reflection at the edge of the cream colored piece.
It’s an effective fix, but I didn’t feel like messing with mitred wood corners and such. Then my sister swooped in with the perfect Christmas present: washi tape!
Hmm, perhaps a washi tape border? Yes, I do believe those diagonal gold stripes could hide my unwanted wood reflection in about two minutes with no special tools. Now that’s more my speed.
Speaking of mitring corners (two paragraphs ago), that’s probably the only part of the tape application worth mentioning. I came up with a simple trick for making perfectly adjoined corners: cut both pieces with one stroke. I’m sure this is already a well-known technique, but I’ll break it down for you in case I wasn’t the last person to figure it out.
1. Lay first piece of tape. No need to cut off excess or rough edge.
2. Lay second piece of tape over first piece. Again, no need to cut off excess or rough edge.
3. Slice through both pieces from outside to inside corner.
4. Remove excess of top piece.
5. Peel back top piece far enough to remove excess portion of bottom piece.
6. Stick top piece back down. Ta da! A perfectly adjoined corner.
All that times 4 and I was done with the mirror. It just needed to be hung…which meant we needed to borrow a ladder…which meant this sat around for a while. But when we had the ladder out to hang the bubble light I jumped at the chance to hang the mirror, too. Or rather I jumped at the chance for Hubby to hang the mirror since it involved this treacherous climb.
And here’s the finished product in place:
In the view below (from the bathroom toward the master bedroom) you can see that the mirror breaks up a vast expanse of gray. That wall needed something in the worst way.
The placement is a bit low, I know. Actually, at first we couldn’t see our heads when standing straight across from the mirror because it tilted down as a byproduct of the hanging hardware. But adding rubber feet to the back of the bottom corners corrected the tilt, and now I can see my whole head and Hubby can see 95% of his. We’re calling that good enough, especially since I have plans to hang something else above the mirror that should help balance things. That other project has been upgraded from “um, sure, someday” to “might actually get done.” I’ll keep you posted.
For now I’m loving this hallway update. It’s amazing how much difference a mirror can make, and the washi tape adds a dimension I wasn’t counting on when I planned on a plain black mirror. Easy upgrade. I’m hooked. I’m off to find other things to tape. Suggestions?
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PS – Did you know they sell house brand washi tape in the office supply aisle at Target? Lest you think it’s a fringe item still outside the mainstream…
PPS – OK, so the Target stuff is called “printed paper tape.” I wonder if *washi* tape has some official designation, like how true champagne only comes from the namesake region of France. (Sorry California, you produce some delicious calipagne.)