I don't have a million dollars for a fancy leaning mirror, nor would I want a million dollar mirror anywhere in my house at my current life situation (hello, breakable items at kid level... I'm smarter than that.)
I went to Wal-Mart and picked up this mirror for $5.88. I won't lie, it's not the best mirror on the planet- it kind of shifts and bends and gives a slight funhouse mirror vibe- but it reflects light down a hallway and that's all I needed. Sold.
They also have a "high end" $15 mirror if you want to live life like the rich and famous, however I'm not sure if the process of removing the frame would be similar to what we did or not (but I image so...)
So this is what we did.
We used a box cutter to remove the backing from the mirror. The backing is a thick cardstock type paper. Just cut around the edge and it's fairly easy to rip off. It just takes some time. Do not stick your box cutter anywhere other than the edge near the frame. If you scratch the backing of the mirror, it's going to scratch off the reflective surface and put a scratch on the mirror part of the mirror.... I just said mirror a whole lot of times but I'm hoping that made some sort of sense.
Use the box cutter to then cut down and horizontally into the adhesive attaching the frame to the mirror. It's okay to cut into the actual frame of the mirror too. You won't be keeping it (but your 4 year old will probably want it to do some sort of craft with... Heads up.) Pull up the adhesive and your good. Again, this looks way easier with YouTube magic. It takes some time, but it will come off.
Use a screwdriver to twist the corners and pop the staples holding the corners together. Again, this isn't too hard because we don't really care about what we do to the actual frame of the mirror.
Once you have your mirror free from the frame, measure in a set amount all around the edge. The more you measure in, the less mirror you will see. We measured 1cm and used a washable marker and our wood edge to mark some straight lines.
Once we had our lines, we knew just how long we needed to cut our reclaimed fence posts. We just measured the lines and miter cut them.
We used wood glue and our staple gun to hold the frame together. Having the whole thing flipped over, we carefully set our mirror on top of the frame. We went around the edge with a bead of liquid nails. We added more liquid nails onto the frame. We cut out a piece of plywood slightly smaller than our frame and placed that on top of the whole thing. We then went around again with our staple gun and stapled the backing into place. We also ended up using our nail gun (when we ran out of staples). Just be sure to nail or staple as far away from the mirror as possible and with a little pressure as possible. To much pressure or too close to the mirror could both add stress and break your mirror.
Once we had it all stapled/nailed into place, we added some weight to the backboard and let it sit over night. The next morning it was dried and ready to be placed.
I'm pretty excited about it. Even if I'll have to clean it daily and make sure kids don't crash into it, it's still a perfect addition to add some light into our tiny hallway.
Watch the whole build here.
