Making My Own Mirrors-Monogrammed

Have you ever wanted to save something from the trash not because it was pretty, but because of how long it's been in your life?? I did, it was a mirror like the one above it has been in my life since I was a small child and has survived three house moves, numerous paint finishes and all the glass cleaners you could name!  I personally think that anything that was  from the seventies generation although could use a makeover by now, don't you agree?? Since my own makeover will cost a lot of pain to my body and my wallet, I'll just focus on the 70's mirror for now!!! That I can handle!! 

At  first I tried to strip off all the old layers of paint with a mild stripper, the first layer of paint was white from it's life hanging in my hallway. Next, I would find the black speckled spray paint that replicated the counter finish in my bathroom and last was a gold spray paint (daughter's bedroom) over the original gold finish! Whew, the mess I made only to find the layers of paint were covering a crack in the frame so as I said in an earlier post on to plan B! The old frame couldn't be saved so I glued the mirror onto a piece of plywood that was cut out for me by my handsome assistant! 

The mirror was octagon shape so that's the pattern he used to cut the 1/4" thick plywood allowing for an extra 3 " border to be decorated later. The roll you see is self adhesive shelf liner which is what I used to make the monogram stencil. Using Microsoft Word on my computer I picked out a font that I liked and gradually enlarged it to a size that would comparably suit the mirror size. With that print out I then used carbon copy paper to trace over the shelf liner so the letters would be visible to me when  I  began to cut them out with my xacto knife and scissors.

Now that I have my stencil I can peel the backing off and reassemble it onto the mirror. As with the other mirror project you should clean your glass with rubbing alcohol and a lint free cloth first before you paint. I chose Martha Stewart's frosted glass paints for this project and I applied it with sponge brushes, one coat each of the two ocean shades.

It needed a few days of drying time in between since I learned that if you apply the second coat any sooner, it will only make the first layer soften and rub off, you need to remember beauty takes time!

Next came the driftwood pieces being glued onto the plywood with a glue gun in a puzzle piecing  format, there is no wrong way to do it. Then it' ready to display, which my lovely assistant did he hung it in the front entrance for me as per instructions, hehe!