Mirror, Mirror on the wall...

These are a couple of special pieces displayed on our vanity. The silver tray was my mothers who inherited from her grandmother and the little piece of blue & green art glass was my grandmother's. It's a small piece that I really wanted because it brings back sweet memories from my childhood.

Ready for another peek into my master bath redo on a shoe-string? This is something MANY of you will be able to do yourself. It's a super easy update and not a really new idea.

Master Bath Vanity "before" it's update.

As I mentioned last post, we had a bathroom that was showing some age and hadn't been touched since the builders called it a wrap over 12 years ago. It even still had the "builder beige" on the walls! That was an easy fix with two coats of "Whispering Spring" by Benjamin Moore, a lovely light teal/aqua blue with just enough yellow/green to keep it from feeling cold and icey.

The part I stressed over was the fact that I had a MASSIVE sheet mirror on the wall that would not be easy to remove by myself. Yes, hubby is helpful and very patient with a constantly evolving house, but I do this stuff on my own as much as possible... especially if I decided to do something that he will see no reason for. I mean why would you take down a perfectly good ginormous mirror? Umm... let me count the reasons!

Master Bath mirror and lights after update. Amazing what a little tweaking can do, isn't it?!

Seriously, there are some good aspects to a large mirror. You never fight over who gets to use it and it reflects tons of natural light, making a room fill twice as big. That said, it also looks cheap and dated. The automatic fix was to make a frame. I looked into the cost of Mirror Mate frames, but it still didn't fit into my shoe-string budget. Almost two years ago, I received a miter saw for Christmas from my parents (they know how to make this girl happy!) and one of the things on the immediate To Do list was to make mirror frames. After finishing the cabinet reface on the rental house I renovated last winter, I had leftover trim. I used part of it to make the sides and bottom of the frame (which had mitered corners) and used a simple piece of door casing trim across the top (no mitered cuts at top - just straight and easy). All pieces were primed and painted the same as my trim prior to installation. Then, I simply used Loctite Power Grab to glue it straight onto the mirror! Since the mirror is held on to the wall by metal clips I still have the possibility in the future to take it all out without ruining the drywall.

New towel rings and cabinet hardware in brushed nickel help to finish off the update. Be GONE shiny brass knobs!

This whole project took about two-three hours from start to finish if you include painting, letting it dry and recoating. And, since the only piece I bought was the case moulding that runs across the top, I only spent about $8-$10. A quick, easy, and cheap update that makes a HUGE difference.