Before
Disclaimer: I have included some affiliate links so you can find the products I used and start some projects of your own! They don’t cost you any more, but it gives me a kickback. 🙂
I bought this mirror along with a couple of other things at a shop downtown I had just discovered, which has now become my new favorite store. It’s called CZ’s, and they buy stuff out of abandoned storage lockers (like on Storage Wars!). They get new stuff in all the time, so if I need some inventory, I’ll stop in there every once in a while.
This one had the original glass with it, and it was all wrapped up in plastic wrap. It was also right next to another mirror frame with no glass. I’ll show you how that turned out, too.
Bad news
It wasn’t till I got home and took the plastic wrap off that I noticed that the mirror had several flaws. The most noticeable being that the mirror was totally shattered. 😢 but then I also noticed that the finial on the right was busted off, and the bottom was splitting.
The splitting wood was an easy fix. I stuck some wood glue in there and used a couple of clamps to coax the wood back into position. I used Gorilla Wood Glue and some clamps like these that we probably got at Menards (one of my other favorite stores).
Of course I can’t find the picture of the mirror clamped right now! 😂 but here’s the same clamp being used on a desk drawer I’m fixing up right now.
Then I got some scrap 1×4 pine and traced the existing finial onto it.
I cut it out with my jigsaw, then shaped it and rounded the edges with my makeshift grinder aka belt sander turned upside down.
Then I cut off the jagged edge of the mirror’s finial so it’d be easier to attach the new one.
Next, I drilled a hole in both the new finial and the mirror frame where it would attach. I used a pencil as a peg to add more support to the new joint.
Especially fitting, since I planned on putting it in my classroom!
Then I added wood glue in the joint and clamped the new finial on until the glue dried.
After that, I used wood filler to smooth the transition between old and new.
I used the cardboard back it came with as a template to make the blackboard out of hardboard I got from Menards. I cut the hardboard out with my handheld jigsaw. (Yes, I use my jigsaw a lot!) Then I gave it two coats of chalkboard spray paint.
I added a bit of scrap 1×4 wood to the back to help it stand, then I gave the frame two coats of homemade chalk paint (I used this post I found on Pinterest to make the paint). I sprayed it on with my air sprayer that I got from Harbor Freight for like $20-25!
Then I used 220 grit sandpaper to distress the edges.
Finished!
I added a cute saying and… Voilà!
I’m really proud of this one because it took so much effort to fix!
And here are some of my other ones I did at the same time.
These ones I just got at Goodwill–they had some pictures in them that I just threw away. I kept the glass, cuz you never know…Yes, I’m aware that this sounds like a hoarder’s mindset, but I ended up using one of the glass panes to fix a broken pane in my garage door, so good thing I kept it!
This is the other one I got from CZ’s along with the oval one. It is also the one that gets the most use, as you can tell. (This is the last daily agenda before we shut down for COVID-19. Crazy times.)
I love the farmhouse vibe they add to my classroom!
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Here’s a sneak peak of the headboard I’m doing for my son’s new “big boy” room. Find the finished product here! 😊
The Belle of the Brush 