I have to confess that I do love a good DIY project. The mirror in my dining room has been on my radar for some time. The frame of the mirror was painted bright gold/brass. You know the look …. trying to make it look expensive but obviously fake gold! Well, I finally decided to make it happen. A “mirror makeover” was on the calendar!

History

To give a little history about the mirror, it belonged to my mother. It was a piece that she loved and suited the style of her formal living room/dining room quite well. While her clothes changed over the years, her furniture and home decor accessories did not!

The mirror hung above a serving table, in the same spot for as long as she lived. She loved it. I never thought too much about the mirror until she passed away in 2016. While she had a brief stay in an assisted living facility, she was able to live at home until the wonderful age of 87.

Upon her death, my brother and I were left with the task of clearing out the house. Let me say that this was quite the undertaking because my mom had stuff in every drawer and every closet. My brother arranged to have an estate sale for the bulk of the furniture and all we had to do was take what we wanted. Oh yeah, and get rid of tons of unsellable stuff that wound up in the trash heap.

The mirror, while gaudy, was quite nice. It was the perfect size for a dining room and I had just the spot for it. Upon getting it home, along with several pieces of her silver serving pieces, my husband hung it on the wall. There it was, in all it’s GOLD glory! I knew my mom was happy!

The Makeover

It’s now November 2020 and I knew it was time. I had previously repainted a piece of furniture metallic silver and then aged it with black wax. This was my plan for the mirror frame.

1. I had my husband take down the mirror and put it on my dining room table. I had originally planned to put it on the floor but realized that I would need to paint the frame edges so the table was easiest.
2. The next step was to place carboard under all of the edges to protect my table from paint and wax.
3. Cleaning the frame came next and fortunately it didn’t really have a lot of dust on it. No need to get the toothbrush out for the ornate details! Yea!!!!!
4. Tape the inside mirror edge to protect the mirror from paint and wax.
5. Start painting!

I forgot to take a picture of it before I began painting. Sorry guys! The paint is so silky that I used a sponge brush to apply the first coat. This allowed me to get paint into the ornate details of the corners and the inside edge. This was a quick process and probably took me about 20 minutes. Now to let it dry!

About 3 hours later I checked the dryness of the paint and applied a second coat of the silver metallic paint. The lighting is not good in my dining room and metallic paint can be hard to work with because of how it interacts with the light. It appeared I had achieved a good coverage. I could see NO MORE GOLD!!

Because I planned to apply black wax to the finish, I needed to wait a minimum of 24 hours for the paint to fully dry. The next day I began applying the first coat of the black wax. I did use a brush that is designed for this process and the mirror makeover was taking shape.

After taking a look at my progress, I knew it wasn’t quite “there” yet! I applied another heavier coat of black wax to the frame. The transformation was amazing! I knew this was going to yield the result I wanted. Walking away to let it dry I could almost hear my mother say “I preferred it gold, but it looks nice!”

For now, the mirror hangs in my dining room with its fresh look! A little piece of my past. A remembrance of my mom. It is now perfect!

Here’s a few of my other DIY projects all using the black wax technique. “Lockdown” DIY Project Table Redo and Another Lockdown DIY Chest Redo.