Shabby Mirror Updo

So basically, I live at flea markets, well not really, but if there is one local to me then I have to hit it up.  I love seeing the people, the vendors, the smell of food in the background and of course the stuff.  Besides the merchandise, I absolutely, truly, truly enjoying searching and digging and picking something buried and forgotten and most importantly CHEAP!  This gives me so much pleasure that I could do it all day long.  Another favorite aspect of fleas and yard/garage sales is haggling, bargaining, hustling, negotiating or whatever you want to call it.  To me it makes the entire experience so much fun and satisfying.  Especially when I take what I bought home and say to myself WOW! I just got that fabulous such and such for dirt cheap. (Not to say that dirt is cheap, because if you ever needed dirt for any reason, it ain't cheap..lol)

Anyway, at a local flea, I picked up this heavy lead mirror and frame for $9.00.  Its 38" x 24", but besides the size what caught my attention was the heavy wood carving and detailing, even though it was hiding behind some black paint. Please don't look at my horrible floors, they need to be redone but that is another post.

 I thought to myself, who would want to hide all this beautiful detailed work behind black paint.  So my goal was to brighten it up and let all the world see what a fabulous mirror this could be with just a little elbow grease and inspiration. 

Isn't it wonderfully chippy!  Look at those details, they needed to come out and I was going to do just that.


Now I haven't been doing re-fabs, re-dos, or re-makes or too long, as a matter of fact I just started and this is now my second project.  I'll have to show you my first project, but that too is another post.

So, I bought some white primer spray paint at my local (HD-Home Depot) and a little painter's tape and I started to spray away....

This is what it looked like after I did 2 coats of the primer.  Now mind you, at the time I thought I would just replace the mirror with a new one since this one had age spots on it, so I wasn't too concerned with the overspray.  My hubby (Mr. Racer) was not too happy about spray painting the grass, but I figured it would just grow out and would go away once the grass is cut.  :-)

If you're wondering why I call my hubby, Mr. Racer, well if you knew him its because he lives and breathes his hobby race car, big time. See..

Ok back to the frame..now look at all that detailed carving, absolutely gorgeous!

Next thing was shabbing it up a bit with a small square sanding block.

Nice!!!

You can see the original black paint chipping and even a little bit of the wood peeking through.  I love it!!!

I've been reading at all the DIY blogs (by the way, big fan of all you guys) that glazing is the way to go if you want to bring some age or for a vintage look.  So I was reading at The Speckled Dog about her tutorial on glazing which inspired me enough to spend the $9 at Lowes and purchase Valspar antiquing glaze in Asphaltum which is essentially a blackish color.  Oh yeah, I also purchased the Valspar Metal and Patina Glaze in Bronze, very pretty.

This is where naiveness or inexperience comes in, because I was thinking at the time that a Bronze metal glazing would make those wonderfully delicious details pop.  So I gathered my supplies, which was a painting brush, a clean rag, the glaze and a some water to hold the brush (in my case an empty Snapple bottle)...

But instead this is what happened, after I applied some of it on.....

And rubbed it off...

No popping of details, instead it made it look yellow, whatha?

Okay, I thought, I'll just try the antique glaze - Asphaltum.  I painted it on...yes, right on top of the other glaze..no shame on my game...

Then I rubbed it off and got this...

Not too bad, right?

So I kept going.. and ended up with this.

Of course, I'll be changing the mirror but I just hung it up for visual purposes. What do you think?  I was going for the shabby chic, vintage look.

Here is a close up.

I kept the outside border of the frame plain white as a contrast to the ornate frame.  Should I shabby this up as well?  Let me know and give me your feedback.  I'd love hear your thoughts on this project.

Oh, so you may or may not have noticed during this whole frame redo story, that after I spray painted 2 coats of the primer, I never, ever, ever spray painted or painted another coat of glossy white.  I just glazed right over the primer.  So the frame is looking a bit dull and dingy for me, rather than vintage.  I think some Polycrylic gloss spray should shiny it up.

I'm on the fence as to keeping it as is or priming it again and putting on some rub on gold for the details and skipping the glazing.   Again, look past the horrible floors.

Thanks for reading about my mirror makeover and stay tuned for some more DIY decor and projects from French Wench Designs.