Cheap Change

Let’s play ‘spot the difference’, shall we? What’s changed from this picture:

to this picture?
I mean, they’re not exactly a reflection of each other anymore. One is the fairest (or fairer) one of all. A mirror image they are not. Ok. I’ll stop. You get it, you had it before I even started up with my ridiculousness.

I painted the mirrors. We ditched the dark, dusty rose for lighter and brighter white with a gold touch. (And yes, in case you noticed this too, I spray painted the light fixtures quick-like.)

Here’s how:

First, I had to protect the glass so I covered it all up with some scrap paper.

I made sure to slide each piece of scrap paper under the edges of the mirror frame so that I didn’t get any paint leaking under there. I then taped them down so they wouldn’t move.
The old Sheena might’ve just taped off the mirror edges (or not even taped at all) but then I realized that if/when you get paint beneath the edge of the mirror frame between the mirror and frame, you can see it reflected in the mirror and not only is that a dead giveaway that something was painted post-purchase and didn’t come that way (the way you want your spray-painted things to look) but it just looks plain sloppy. Lazy for the lose.

Once the mirror was safe and undercover, I primed the frame with my favorite primer.

Then I gave the entire thing a couple of thin coats of this white spray paint. I went with a flat finish because these mirrors have a distressed look to them and flat paint would kind of keep that look whereas anything with a sheen might make them just look bumpy –> not good.

I could’ve stopped there…but that would’ve been boring.

These chunky mirror frames have a bunch of different facets to them so I taped off the innermost part. I used and LOVE this painters’ tape. I have never had paint bleed with it. The best.
After taping, I taped some newspaper over the rest of the frame to protect the fresh white.

And then I gave it a couple of thin coats of my favorite gold spray paint.

King Midas called and said that even he loved them, despite them not being completely gold so I guess I’ll take that as a win. ;)

Whaddya think?

Much better, eh? I do still have a hankering to paint the walls white in our master bath but we’re putting that on hold for a few bigger projects that I’ll tell you about later. So, the white against the dark greige walls seemed a perfect pairing. If we go white, I think I might go gray with the mirrors or I could leave them…I don’t know.

Anyway, back to the nitty gritty. You can see the distressed look a little better here:
(PS, want to take a shower while the baby is awake? Go clear with your shower curtain and let them watch the “rain”.)
After I had painted the mirrors, I went over the larger distressed areas with a small piece of sandpaper to bring out a little more color from underneath. Not the dusty rose color though. The mirrors were dusty rose with tan distressing and so I tried to stick with just revealing the tan parts like so:
(before up top, after below)

It’s so easy (not to mention el cheapo!) to add a little something special to a solid-colored frame just by painting a part of it. I’m a big fan of it as you can see here, here, and here.