I admit that I have a thing for old mirrors. I really love the aged quality and light that they bring to a home. On a recent resale shopping trip a mirror spoke to me, as mirrors often do. It was rough. At one time this mirror had been a beauty. In the beginning I believe it was a gold plaster frame with some sort of decoration at the top. It was hanging on a wall in the resale shop for $5.00 The mirror was scratched and one of the plaster roses was broken. Someone had tried to fill in with wood filler where the top portion had been. I had to have it. After some negotiation I got the mirror for $2.00 and brought it to the Garagemahal for a make-over. The first thing I did was try to repair the scratch on the mirror silvering. I don't mind aging mirrors but this one had been scratched and left a streak across the glass where there was no mirror silver left. I used Krylon Looking Glass paint.
It took several coats and it is still not perfect, but the scratch is not as noticable as before.
I taped off the glass front of the mirror with blue tape carefully because I knew that even the blue tape would possibly take off more plaster. I then covered the rest of the glass with newspaper.
After I covered everything with newspaper I sprayed clear satin sealer on the frame. It was so fragile that I thought the thing would fall apart if I tried anything before I sealed it.
Next I gave the whole thing two coats of shiny gold paint.
It looked better already.
Because I really did want to return the mirror to its aged appearance I used glaze mixed with a dark brown color to glaze the entire thing. I let it set on the frame a lot longer than I normally do because I wanted to make sure I knocked down the shiny gold.
The frame is very fragile so I sprayed everything front and back with a spray sealer. The plaster frame cannot afford to absorb any more moisture. In our humid location I knew it would need all the help it could get.
I love the vintage quality of this frame in my bedroom.
No comments:
Post a Comment