Look, My Bathroom Mirror Frame Has A Twin!

I was absolutely delighted when I visited Jenny's blog, Evolution of Style, after receiving an email from her yesterday morning. She asked me to come take a look, my bathroom mirror frame project had inspired her to frame a mirror in one of her bathrooms. If you write a blog I don't have to tell you that it is work, but when people share that something you've done has inspired them, it certainly makes it worth the effort! Here is the fabulous job she did:

"After admiring so many mirror transformations in blogland, I finally found one that inspired me into action. Janell, of Isabella & Max Rooms, recently did an amazing mirror makeover, and since it didn't involve mitre-ing (is that a word?) corners, I decided, this is the tutorial for ME!"

before

"I hit Lowe's for my supplies, and fortunately, didn't need to buy too much. Some primed MDF for the frame, paint and wood glue. I decided that I would start small on the project and do the mirror in the kids' bathroom to get my feet wet. I figured if I could do their bathroom, I would learn from my mistakes and doing our master bath mirror should be a piece of cake, right?

...I was able to complete this project within a day, although I did buy the supplies the day before. But, it's definitely a completely doable weekend project. I have the frames for my master bath mirror in the garage now, and the only thing keeping me from putting the mirror up tonight is that I didn't pay attention and have to go back to Lowe's and get two more pieces of MDF, since I bought the wrong width for the top piece! Argh!"

after

"What a difference! A big shout out to Janell for such a great tutorial - I will be waiting for her next woodworking demonstration, "How to mitre corners". :-)

Until then, I will press on with my master bedroom mirror makeover. Of course, I have to go to Lowe's first."

Thanks Jen, you've inspired me and I love that my mirror frame already has a twin!

And now to answer a few of the questions I received after posting the tutorial, which were answered in comments but I also promised I would cover them in a follow up post.


Laurel @ Ducks in a Row said...
My mirrors have the clips, also, and I've always wondered how I could do this with the clips - so you just removed them and glued the mirror to the wall?

Yes Laurel, the mirror had two clips attached with a screw at the top of the mirror. I unscrewed them just enough to be able to pull the mirror out from the wall to "inject" some of the adhesive behind the mirror. The clips were then screwed back into place, holding the mirror against the wall until the adhesive dried and then were removed.

Rebecca said...
Janell,

I have one question for you in regards to mdf sizes you used. What is the depth of the pieces you used? Are the pieces that are installed directly on the mirror the same depth as the wide center piece that is installed directly to the sheet rock? Does this make sense?

Rebecca, yes, it does make sense. All the pieces are 5/8 inch thick.

I definitely need to do a follow up post. I placed a 1/4 inch thick "block" on the back of the top frame piece along its top edge. This allowed the top frame piece to be attached on the same "plane" as the side pieces applied directly to the mirror and the bottom piece applied directly to the tile.

1/4" wood block placed at top of frame shown below

Jane Ellen said...
it seems like the top piece and bottom piece would set back farther than the side pieces that are places on the mirror....did this not create a problem?

Hi Jane Ellen,
Great question...the tile below the mirror is virtually flush with the mirror surface and the bottom piece extends over the mirror about an inch, the top frame piece extends down over the mirror about two inches, so all the trim pieces do end up flush. The only thing I did not mention in the post, but talked about in the comments, is how I placed a 1/4 inch thick "block" behind the top trim piece at the top edge to help "hold out" the trim attached to wall rather than the mirror.

Another great tip came in from a comment from this talented designer:

Sally J said...
As always, your project turned out perfectly! I have had carpenters frame out several mirrors for clients and it really transforms the bathroom. The only thing they did differently was to rout out a cut out in the back to lay over the mirror, but yours works just as well. Thanks for instructing everyone to paint the back....very important and not a step to be missed. Great tutorial, Janell, and a wonderful result!

I hope this answers any of your questions, particularly if you didn't see the questions and answers in the comments. And as I said in another comment, each mirror will present a unique set of issues to work out for a successful result.

Happy Mirror Framing!