Melodie from

liked my monogrammed mirror
and it inspired to ‘save’ one she had given to her. She inspired me right back. Here are some of her DIY projects:

I have been searching for a large mirror for our foyer since *before* we moved into the house. Much to my dismay, Mr. Mel hates mirrors (say wha?!) so he was zero help, and many of the ones I found were way beyond my budget or too glammy for Mr. Mel’s taste.

Then, just when I had given up, my dad offered me a rather, uhm, interesting bronze-y, gothic-y, filigree-y mirror my parents received as a wedding gift 35 YEARS AGO! It’s been collecting dust in their basement for years. My response to him was a very enthousiastic, “Yeh, I’d love to take it off your hands!”. Followed by a hesitant, “…that is, if you don’t mind me going at it with a can of spray paint”. Thankfully, my dad has always been a fan of my rather *creative* decorating solutions and didn’t have a problem with the mirror getting a facelift.

Here’s the mirror before (a tad too Liberace for my taste):

I used Rust-Oleum Paint for Plastics in Shell White for this project. Because it’s meant for outdoor patio furniture, I got to skip the primer step…it’s an all-in-one product that has great coverage. I also did some glazing on it to bring out some of the details.

Next I made myself a monogram (inspired by this post at The DIY Showoff). To create a stencil, I printed off the letters I wanted on plain paper, traced it onto sheets of window cling I had hanging around, and cut the letters out with an exacto knife. I placed the stencil on the mirror and sprayed them with Krylon Frosted Glass Finish. My first attempt = epic fail. The window cling shrunk when the frosting touched it, smearing the frosting spray across the surface. Not. Good. The second time around I made a stencil from cardstock, sprayed it with readjustable stencil spray and placed it on the mirror. This, too, was a miserable failure, the frosting seemed to pool around the edges and formed this yucky crust and the adhesive spray left a sticky mess all over the mirror which I had to attempt to remove using nail polish remover and a q-tip…not fun. Finally, I made a stencil from, of all things, shelf contact paper and it worked like a charm! SUCCESS!

I am so happy to be able to use this mirror in my foyer. It’s a great connection to my parents and I can’t wait for them to see it.

UP UP UP – Stairway Wall Before

Photo Gallery After

Beautiful After

ANOTHER lamp makeover

Before

After – Wow!

Fabulous Furniture

Before

Now the fabulous after:

A sterile cold bathroom warms up:

WOW! So much creativity all in one blog! LOVE it! Thanks Mel!