DIY Distressed Mirror

As most of you know, I was recently featured on Ucreate. For my guest post, I put together this tutorial of my RH knockoff mirror. Like this one pinned here.

Source: restorationhardware.com via Kristi on Pinterest

I agreed to not publish the complete post on my blog for awhile, but in case you missed it on Ucreate, here it is.

A few years ago I bought a large mirror that was a great price, but unfortunately pretty average in the looks department. I used it in our old apartment; however, after we moved, I decided the mirror needed a makeover before I could get excited about displaying it again. Using Restoration Hardware's salvaged boat mirror as my inspiration, I was able to replace a so-so mirror with something that I love.

Materials:

Liquid Nails

press board cut a few inches larger than your mirror on all sides

1" x 6" boards (I used maple wood because I knew it would take stain better than pine or poplar and I like the grain better than oak)

1" x 2" boards (again maple)

wood glue

nails

finishing supplies (stain, wax)

wooden dowel

Instructions:

1) Place Liquid Nails on the back of the mirror. Center and attach the mirror to the press board and let it set for the recommended amount of time.

2) Cut the 1" x 6" boards to size, as shown below.

                     

3) Cut the 1" x 2" boards to size. As shown below, you'll need to cut each end at a 45-degree angle in order to frame the 1" x 6" boards.

4) Once the boards are cut, it's time to distress. My husband and I used a few different techniques including dragging the boards across our driveway and using a chisel to gouge and scrape the wood.

5) Next I drilled a couple holes on each end of two of the boards and filled them with pieces of dowel.

6) Once distressed, you can of course finish the wood with any stain or paint you like. As I mentioned earlier, I was trying to achieve a weathered look similar to Restoration Hardware's mirror, which required some experimentation. In the end, I used two coats of Minwax Jacobean stain and two coats of Minwax Classic Grey stain. After staining, I also applied one coat of Fiddes & Sons' wax.

7) Attach each 1" x 6" to the press board with wood glue then clamp to dry. I then placed a few short finishing nails from the back side so they'd be hidden.

8) Once the 1" x 6" boards are set, you can then attach the 1" x 2" trim pieces with glue and nails. I again used my 18-gauge finish nailer and you can hardly notice the nail holes, particularly with all the other holes and gouges we intentionally made.

Here is the mirror all finished.