Both of the bathrooms in our home when we bought it had those big mirrors glued to the wall. The powder room had no mirror at all. Anyway, they were boring. When we decorated our master bathroom we added a frame with molding and it looked good. It was a huge change for minimal cost especially since this mirror is seriously HUGE! The kids bathroom however kind of got forgotten about. I had painted it a brown color and although I didn't hate it I wasn't really in love with it either. So I just left it all the way it was for about 2 years. I didn't want to repaint just any color.
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| The brown color I wasn't thrilled with. It was kind of gloomy and the counters and tiles all just matched. |
This brings me to last week. I was looking around on pinterest just to look and I came accross this blog: http://www.sandandsisal.com/2011/10/my-boys-beach-themed-bathroom.html
I was inspired by her boys bathroom. I had started with an Americana theme since I have a boy and girl sharing the bathroom I didn't want to go too masculine or feminine. Then the Americana theme started to lean towards beach theme. So the color I decided would fit my bathroom perfectly. I stopped by Benjamin Moore and bought my paint. After I got that on the wall I went molding shopping, I had to buy 2 different kinds of moldings and return them to Home Depot before I found the perfect one at Lowes. I used a casing molding (the kind that goes around windows and doors). I originally purchased crown molding but that will not work since it does not cover the edges or the mirror. (My hubby pointed this out) Then we came to the problem that the mirror in this bathroom was not HUGE and covering it up like in the other blog I was looking at would make it look teeny! Although that was is much more user friendly for people that do not have lots of tools etc. Thankfully God blessed me with a very handy husband. I don't have a picture (I told you I was terrible at before pictures) of the before but this is after we added the luan (spelling?) thin, cheap wood. To build it up enough my husband used 2 layers of this, so he could then overlap the molding a half inch to cover the mirror clips holding the mirror on the wall! This goes around the perimeter of the mirror and we used a nail gun to hold it up on the wall. So you can see the mirror would have been pretty small. Also, by making it bigger, it actually centers it better over the countertop.
Notice in the picture below the frame is painted about an inch all the way around in black paint. I used craft paint since it dries fast and I am impatient, especially when excited about a project! This blacks out the mirror, since mirrors reflect.
Then we have our frame. Cut two exact pieces the same length at a 45 for the sides and then cut two more exact pieces for the top and bottom at a 45. The lady in the blog used some kind of contact cement adhesive. Hubby used a nail gun. On one corner the nail went through and we had to do some repair work. The glue may be a better idea in this case because the frame is pretty fragile. I caulked and painted my frame in semi gloss white paint. I then started to piece in the tiles I bought at Home Depot for $4.98 a sheet, we used about a sheet and a half. I put them all on there and made my cuts with scissors on the mesh that holds them together. Where it overlapped a little on the edge I just readjusted the spaces a little to squeeze them all in and you cannot even tell! I used Power Grab glue for this that dries clear and it was on there pretty good after only about 5 minutes. After this it was ready to hang up. We again attached the frame to the wood with a nail gun, I caulked the holes and touched them up with paint and then......
*******TA DA*********..... we have a finished frame that looks totally custom (well, it is) I am so in love with it and have found myself going up there just to look at it! I am that proud! Silly I know, but if I would have remembered to take a true before picture you would truly know the AWE effect!
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| Looks pretty great if I do say so myself. I do plan on finding a new valance for the window.... stay tuned! :) |
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