Mirror Makeover

A mirror, a stick of lumber, and a saw walk into a workshop…..

The other day I mentioned a series of projects that are about to begin at Grover Woodworks.  One project I failed to mention was a mirror makeover.  No this is a different one that the shutter mirror, we are getting to that, this was a quick makeover and I am not totally finished with it.  Tomorrow night I should have it totally painted and ready to install.  We decided we wanted a new mirror for our downstairs guest bathroom.  We looked around and found several that we like the cheapest being $40.  Being cheap frugal my wife and I both new I could build a better mirror for less.   We took a trip to one of our favorite bargain stores Big Lots and found this…..   It’s a little uglier in person.  Big Lots had this for $10.  I removed the mirror from the frame without killing the frame or the mirror.  We will reuse the frame for another project it will be modified as well. 

So tonight I decided it was time to make the frame for the mirror.  I took some extra sticks of lumber that I had left over from the shutter mirror project and built the frame using a miter saw and a Kreg Pocket Hole Jig.  I really like my pocket hole jig.  I need to upgrade to the K3 at least.  Anyway I digress..  After a little bit of planning, measuring and cutting I started to see the frame come together.  Here are a few of the pieces cut out for the frame.

 

 

 

 

Here I have drilled some of the pocket holes and have started to assemble the frame.  One thing I forgot to mention is the rabbet that I cut on all the frame boards.  I did this on my jointer as it has the ability to cut rabbets.  It’s a handy feature, you can also cut the rabbets on a table saw or use a router to cut the rabbets.   The frame is finally

complete and it’s actually pretty square.  There looks to be something a little wrong in this picture however.  Do you see the huge gap at the bottom.  Are my measuring skills really that bad can I not read a measuring tape.  The answer is probably yes no I planned it that way.  I planned it that way because I knew I wanted to add that shelf to the frame.  Wait there is still a really big hole.. :)  Oh yeah the mirror goes there.  Anyway..  I used some scrap wood to fill the gap at the bottom and a little more of the extra lumber to create a small simple shelf.  To make the corbels I took the same lumber and took my speed square and drew out the 45° angle.  I did however slide it over so that there is a small flat front on the corbel.  I used a small nail gun to attach the shelf and corbels to the frame.  Here is the mirror frame after a quick coat of paint.  I am happy about how it turned out.  We are going to try it in the guest bathroom and see how we like it.  If not I am sure we can find a spot for it somewhere in the house. 

As soon as we have it mounted in its permanent location I will post some final pictures for you to see.  To recap this project I am going to estimate that I have about $8 to $10 wrapped up.  The frame was $10, the wood was $1.97 a stick and I used just a little over  one stick and a little bit of paint, so I split the cost of the mirror $5 for this project plus lets call it $2.50 for wood and .50 in paint and screws.  All in all I am pretty pleased with the outcome.  I am getting more confident in my ability to use my tools and had a really good time tonight it was very relaxing.

Let me know what you think or if you have any questions feel free to comment or shoot me an email and as soon as I can get this thing done I will get the last couple of pictures posted. 

Have a Great Day!

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