Painted Mirror Frame with Downsizing Back Story

The topic of this article is two-fold. Mainly it's to show you a mirror frame that I painted for my home, but the (somewhat long) back story is I had trouble finding a wall to hang the mirror after I downsized to a much smaller home. I had to let go of a lot of furniture when I downsized, but I was determined to keep this mirror.

(HINT: if you want to skip the riveting story content and just scroll through the photos, click on any picture to open up the gallery viewer.)

But first let me back up and start at the beginning: the real estate photo below shows the open concept dining area and living room. 

Real estate photo shows the open concept living and dining space.

Here is the same space empty upon our purchase of the property. We will convert another room into a dining room, so we don't plan to use the current dining space for eating. My initial thought was to create a cozy reading nook.

Empty room of newly purchased home.

First we tore out the old carpet. Then I gave the walls a fresh coat of paint and installed new baseboards. We eventually changed the light fixture as well. (The kitchen is in the background. You can read about that project HERE.)

Updating the room with white paint.

OK so remember I mentioned a mirror? It was purchased for our previous home which had much higher ceilings, but I really wanted to make it work somewhere in our downsized home. There were only a few walls where it would fit. Initially I planned to hang the mirror on the back wall so it would reflect light from the front window, and I thought I would create a cozy reading nook. Unfortunately, if the mirror was hung at the proper height it would block the air vent (it's a really large mirror). If I scooched it down so it cleared the vent it was way too low.

Mock up design plan to create a cozy reading nook.

So I moved the mirror to the adjacent wall. Which I didn't really like, but it worked well enough, so I decided to live with it.

I moved the mirror to an adjacent wall.

But after living in the house for a few weeks, it quickly became apparent that the coat closet in the hallway (nowhere near any of the entryways), wasn't going to work for us. So I revamped my plan for the former dining space, aka reading nook, to become a storage area instead. Sort of like a mudroom, but without the mud. 

It looked great on paper, but in real life once the cabinets arrived I realized the depth of the cabinets would partially cover the mirror. So I needed to find another space for the mirror.

Plans for adding storage. But the mirror won't fit.

PAINTING MIRROR FRAME:

I still didn't want to get rid of the mirror, so I decided to move it into the hallway across from the coat closet. And at this point I thought it was definitely time for a lighter and brighter color! All that to say we have finally arrived to the point of this article where I paint the mirror frame. Whew!

Bright yellow paint for mirror frame.

I alternated between two colors: Marigold and Cream. The round brush was excellet for pushing paint around and working it into all the nooks and crannies, although I didn't fret about getting perfect coverage. Once the paint was dry I sealed it with clear wax.

Applying yellow paint with a round brush.

PRODUCTS USED:

PAINTED MIRROR FRAME AFTER:

And at long last my mirror has found it's new home! The TV Armoire that I painted years ago can be seen in the foreground of the photo. The colors work nicely together and make me happy.

Painted yellow mirror hanging on wall.

I really like the mirror's lighter color versus the previous dark finish. It brightens up the space nicely. It now hangs opposite the coat closet (which I plan to convert to a linen closet). I may add a narrow storage unit beneath the mirror, but that's for another day.

Large round mirror hanging in hallway.

I am obsessed with the color! It's bright, cheerful, and soothing all at the same time.

Decorative framed mirror painted yellow.

If you look closely you can see the subtle effects of layering the two paint colors.

Layered paint effect with Marigold and Cream.

Although the mirror hangs in the hallway, it does catch and reflect a bit of light from the front windows which also helps brighten the space.

The mirror reflects light from the front window and brightens the space.

The light bulb in the hallway has a warm-white bulb, and I love the effect it has on the painted mirror frame at night.

The warm-white light creates a soft glow at night.

I'll finish up with a quick before and after. My next article will focus on the storage area I created.

A few easy changes transformed this space!