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Saturday, December 27, 2014

Mirror Revamp

Hi All,
I'm in the process of redesigning the blog, as well as the name, so stay tuned for those updates. Meanwhile, I wanted to share a little makeover project I did recently. While walking home from picking up some Thai takeout, Jimbo spied a fugly mirror left on the corner. He paused, waiting for my predictable reaction to free stuff on the street; it looks something like this: I slow the pace as I walk by scanning, "sizing up" the piece, then stop, pick it up and nod to myself, approving the decision to take it to my overly full hallway storage. The best piece I ever picked up off the street was a rice maker... Yup, that may make your cringe. But I have had that baby since the beginning of college and it still cooks my rice to perfection every time!
But I digress. In this particular instance, I did not notice the mirror, because as I said it was soooo ugly. But when James stopped, I thought I could be missing something. I picked it up and decided, why not? It's not a big piece of furniture so it won't take up too much space while I decide what to do with it.
Sadly, I can't find the "before" pictures of the mirror, so I will have to describe it for you. The frame was a dirty pastel green, with floral designs painted along the curvy edges. It looked like a sad version of an English tea room. And don't get me wrong, I love a quaint, girly tea house.
But I decided to erase all evidence of the prior design, and painted it black(Graphite by Annie Sloan).
I started drawing some ideas for a graphic design, as you can maybe see in pencil on the frame. I wanted to veer away from the scalloped edges, and do something angular. When I had settled on a design I liked, I painted it in white along the lines I had drawn. To finish, I waxed the entire frame.
Here's the reveal:
I made the last photo almost black and white, because I like how it shows the contrast in the frame. And in the second photo you can glimpse my Christmas tree in the reflection, which I love. By the way, it makes me so sad when I see Christmas trees out on the street the day after Christmas. Too soon, people! Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the post. Happy Holidays!