A great DIY project is one of my favorite ways to transform a space. I love taking something unused and unloved and creating something completely different from it. I shared about a garbage pick haul that I did several weeks ago here, and while I was gathering that piece I happened to find something else that I thought had a lot of potential. This old picture frame just spoke to me. Maybe it was the uniqueness of the frame itself, maybe it was the painting that reminded me of my childhood, maybe it was just that I didn’t want to see it tossed in a garbage truck. All I can say is, I knew I wanted to save it.
I had considered keeping the painting in the frame because it truly did remind me of paintings I had seen in my own family growing up. But the reality is, it didn’t match a thing in my house. That is when I had an idea. I had dabbled in a DIY project a few months ago that I thought had a lot of potential but didn’t exactly live up to that potential in practice. I had attempted to turn an old window frame into an antique mirror. And while it had some uniqueness to it, it didn’t work out quite as well as I had hoped. I skipped steps and didn’t take the time to perfect what I was working on the way I should have. Trial and error is the key to DIY success afterall. But after learning a thing or two from that ordeal, I decided I wanted to give it another try. It was just a garbage pick find, and if it failed, it failed. Nothing much lost. So I decided to dive on in and give it another try. Here is a look at it when I brought it home:
To start, the frame itself needed some attention. I like brass, but this brass looked cheap. It was badly scratched and beat up. It just wouldn’t work for my home. I considered painting it black. Then I considered just a better brass tone. Then I considered copper. I had started using copper spray paint in the fall and absolutely fell in love with it. But I didn’t want it to be a solid copper. So I started by painting it black. Then I did a light coat of the copper. I sort of continued layering the two colors until I got it right where I wanted it. Simple, light coats and a spray here and there gave me the aged copper feel that I was going for. I love how it makes the beautiful details in the frame just pop. It went from “trashy” to classy.
So now for the fun part: the aged mirror. How did I take a piece of glass and make it an antique mirror? Let me tell you. To start, I picked up a can of looking glass spray paint from Krylon. This paint truly does produce a mirror effect, and it is simply amazing. I cleaned the glass really well and gave the glass a couple of thin coats. When using the mirrored spray paint, you ALWAYS spray the backside of the glass. On this glass, either side will work since it is removable/reversible. But if you are planning to do this on cabinet glass or on an old window for example, you always spray on the backside and not the front. It will not work if you don’t do this, so this step is critical to preventing a big mistake. So, always spray the backside and you will be amazed at what it looks like when you flip it over later.
Now, while this was still drying, I took a water and vinegar solution and lightly misted it directly onto the mirror effect spray paint. I did this most heavily on the outer edges of the glass where natural aging would occur. I used 1 part vinegar and 2 parts water in a spray bottle. The vinegar in the solution helps to eat away at small sections of the mirrored paint, giving it that aged patina. I gently dabbed some damp paper towel in sections if there were any bubbles in the paint. If helped to take away even more of that paint to make it look even more aged. I did this process several times until I achieved the look I wanted. I sprayed the actual painting itself black and placed it up against the mirrored glass so that the black would show through those “holes” in the paint. It aged the mirror even more.
I highly recommend that if you are going to try this that you test it out first. I used some glass on old mini lanterns to try it out on, and it gave me a good feel of how this process would go. Again, trial and error is the key to DIY success. The dollar store would be a great place to buy some inexpensive picture frames to test it out on. People prefer different amounts of aging on their DIY mirrors, so practice getting the patina the way you want it before you try it on anything more important. I happen to love a lot of aging on mine, so I applied the water and vinegar solution more heavily than maybe others would.
The aged mirror look is quite popular among retailers right now. I have seen mirrors with a very similar look that are selling for $500 to over $1,000 dollars. This cost me $10 for the mirrored paint, and I used the black and copper spray paints that I already had. It sure beats the expensive price in retail stores. And, I can make it fit the exact style I want. That is a win in my book.
I hope that this tutorial is helpful to you! I know it maybe sounds complicated, but it is actually a lot easier when done in practice. There are a lot of great video tutorials on youtube that may be very helpful to you, but I hope that this gives you at least a good foundation to getting started if this is something you may want to try for yourself. And remember, trial and error is a critical part to succeeding with DIY. It took me several times of practice before I really figured out the exact way to do it to achieve the look I wanted. This is nowhere near perfect, but unless we try, we will never know what we are capable of. I hope that encourages you today and that you’ve enjoyed this fun transformation!
