DIY Large Mirror
I found this gorgeous 6 foot tall mirror that was perfectly modern while also looking like it could have come out of an old shot gun house in New Orleans. I grew up in south Louisiana and as im collecting decor for my north east home I’ve been wanting to bring parts of my culture to mix in with the traditional english architecture I now live around. This mirror I found was way more then my budget. I immediately started studying the mirror and how it was made. To my surprise it wasnt made out of mahogany or white oak. It was pine! The kind you can get at any hardware store and for a very reasonable price. That told me I could definitely make this mirror for less than it is being sold.
I’m very lucky to have many creative people in my life. My neighbor is a very talented builder. Hes never done a build like this but lucky for me he was excited for a project. I made the drawings of how to build each part. Once I knew how we could build it I started looking at pine sizes that would fit the dimensions I needed. The original mirror is 82” high and 42” wide. It took me almost two months searching on marketplace to find the right sized mirror. If you’re wanting to do this DIY look for listings for bathroom mirrors as well as floor length mirrors. The tricky part is finding a mirror wide enough to work. I drove up to Hartford to get this $50 antique mirror from a nice guy whos daughter no longer wanted it.
For this mirror I got two 1x4, two 1x5, two 1x2 and two wooden legs. A jig saw, chop saw or circular saw and a coping saw is needed to be able to cut and scribe the curves at the edges. My local hardware store had all of the wood available and cut it down to the size I need. I also grabbed mirror clips to secure the mirror more at the end of the project. Pine is notoriously not easy to stain and can get very stripy. Pre stain is my best friend when working with pine. I did a few stain samples but all of them except the gel stain were coming out lighter and stripy. The gel was able to sit on top of the boards while still showing the grain really well. The original inspiration mirror come in two colors but I wanted the darker one. I went with Minwax Coffee gel stain.
The mirror I got off marketplace was very heavy and even had cool patina in some spots that I personally really like and made the project come out looking like the best antique find ever. We had to take off the original frame that was made of brass to be able to put the mirror into the new wooden frame. The brass frame was such a luck accident and we ended up selling it to recoup some of the cost of this project. All in I paid $61.18 for the wood, $27.99 for the gel stain, $50 for the mirror, all the tools I already own. I did need to get a new coping blade for $10 and then miscellaneous things like a tube of bonding to set the mirror, stain rags and mirror clips were $38.28 . All in this mirror retails for $1,999 and I made it for $154.83