Mirror Mirror on the wall...

Once upon a time, I worked for a little shop that had a tremendous sale, in which I snapped up a once overpriced mirror for a mere $10. Again, tremendous sale. I'm a big fan of mirrors and what they can do for a space, so I figured it was time to get one for our living room, and at $10, I wasn't out a lot.

The steal of the century, $10 mirror.

However, the mirror was gold. Which was a slight problem. Everything we own is in cool tones. We have black couches, and varying shades of cool tones-- so the gold really clashed. I wanted to paint it, but I didn't know how-- insert my friend Connie, who can paint anything, and has painted just about everything. She directed me to this kit thing you can buy to antique, or change the color of furniture. I thought it was a splendid idea, I beelined my behind to my local michaels and bought the kit. The following is what happened:

Ta-Da! Silver! I loved it this exact color when I first painted the mirror, but I was very sad to lose all the detailing of the basket weave frame.

So I decided to antique it, using the pewter color that came with the kit. Here you can really see the color difference with the stain on the right vs. the plain silver on the left.

Halfway done! This was a really time consuming and tedious process, as well as very messy. (see picture-- those rags-- they were white. yeah.) I wanted to make sure I got every nook and cranny.

Because the pattern is just really cool looking. I mean really, now that the mirror is "pewter antiqued" I feel like it came from the celtic period or something. Well, maybe not celtic. I just think it's cool.

It took me awhile to get used to the painted mirror-- for awhile I thought I had really screwed it up-- I thought I was a little too heavy handed on the patina and that the mirror looked a little dull in comparison to when it used to be just silver and shiny. Then, I found a glossy clear coat spray, which solved all my problems.

Ta-Da! Finished mirror! It doesn't look as shiny in this light as it truly is (crappy indoor lighting!) but I'm thrilled that I finally finished it and that we finally got it hung! Hallelujah!