Fall Mantel Decorating: Mirror…Mirror On The Wall

How to Reuse The Mirror From a Dresser or Chest of Drawers

I use to have an old Victorian mirror over my mantel in my dining room. It was something I picked up at a garage sale years ago, but I wanted change. I wanted something above my mantel that was simple and bold.

I wanted something new, but as you know I was on a tight budget so I decided to shop my house and see what I could come up with. I found a mirror that was hardly ever used, so I took it down to use in my dining room. It may not be brand new, but the mirror would be new to my dining room.

I took the mirror from my guest room. It was attached to a hand me down dresser. (I completely updated the dresser in this post)

I painted the mirror black and gold with some rust and verdigris detailing. I used Rust-Oleum Metallic Spray Paint in Gold and Rust-Oleum High Heat in Aged Copper.

I sprayed the mirror frame randomly with both of these colors and let it dry. I then brushed on black gloss latex I had. Once that was dry, I used a small paint brush and added light green paint in the crevices of the frame to look like verdigris.

When that was dry, I roughed up the edges with some sandpaper.

For a list of essential beginner and professional painting tips, visit my post here.

I hung it above the mantel, but I didn’t like it – it needed some beefing up. I thought about adding some molding, but didn’t have enough large pieces in my scrap pile.

So I went shopping in my house again for something else and found another mirror that I bought at HomeGoods, but it was too small. As I was figuring out what to do I put it on the mantel and leaned it against the larger mirror to get it out of the way and all of a sudden… I saw WOW – I loved it. One large mirror hanging on the wall, a second one leaning against it – 2 mirrors.

Mirror After:

Here it the smaller mirror – centered.

and here – off-centered. So many options.

Now that my Decorating Marathon is complete all I have to do is set the table, cook the turkey, and add family and friends to the room to celebrate Thanksgiving.