Mirror Mirror on the Window

One of the weirder things about our bathroom, is that the only mirror (also a medicine cabinet) is not over the sink. Its actually about 3 feet to the left of the sink. Where you literally have about 10" to stand between the toilet and built in hamper and wall in order to not get toothpaste all over your face. So what is over our sink? A big fat window. So that our lovely neighbors can watch us brush our teeth I suppose. 

You can see how we frosted it here. That way we can still let light in without that awkward moment when your neighbors go out to get their newspaper and you are stepping out of the shower in the buff. That never happened, but it could have.

Derek was very firm that he didn't want to permanently block the window with a mirror. You know in case we have a fire and all of the 26 other windows, and 2 doors are completely blocked and this 15" x 24" opening is our only option. We don't want to take any chances here.  

So I knew that a captains mirror would be the perfect solution and started hunting down the best option that wasn't too big, or too nautical, or too convex.

one | two | three | four | five | six

I was getting a bit of sticker shock considering most of the mirrors I found were in the $200-300 range. When I stumbled on this mirror from Target for $29, I thought it was too good to be true. But honestly, I really liked the black metal since I knew we'd be adding black accents throughout the house and it would help tie everything together. When it arrived I could see why it had been so inexpensive. The strap was made of a cheap-o rubbery plastic material that was already cracking at the fasteners. Considering I really didn't want a broken mirror to deal with, I knew that I had to replace the strap with something a bit more durable. Also since the lowest anchor point we have to work with was the top of the window frame, the strap caused the mirror to be about a foot too short. 

I headed to a local craft store to see what my options would be for the strap. I needed something strong, and easy to fasten back onto itself without worrying that the mirror would fall to it's death one day. After experimenting with several different options, I ended up settling on some black velcro. I know. So glamorous. I used my mad geometry skills to figure out how long the strap needed to be in order to lower the mirror to an appropriate teeth brushing height. I then doubled that distance so that I could fold over the velcro onto itself creating one big loop that was extra strong.

I then re-laced the new velcro loop through the existing fasteners on each side of the mirror and hung it from the top of the window frame with the black hook that came with the mirror.

Now that we have two mirrors, we do a little tango every morning of who gets to use what mirror. After almost a year now, have mastered the coreography. The one on the left is reserved for small tasks (i.e.: contacts, face creams, makeup, etc.), while the mirror on the right is for more exciting activities like teeth brushing, hair straightening, and beard brushing.. you know tasks that require lots of elbow room.

Eventually we might remove the mirror on the left, and just have a solid door on the medicine cabinet. I mean. A girl can dream.

Mirror Mirror

When we first toured our house, the first room you walked into was a super crowded living room that was connected to a dining room that opened to the kitchen. We knew our furniture would never fit in this weird long and narrow shared space. So we decided to flip the two rooms and have the dining room be on the side with the fireplace (when you first walk in) and then the living room would be off of the kitchen. I'm sure it sounds weird, but it just made more sense for us. We really didn't like the idea of walking straight into the living room. We felt like the dining room allowed for a bit of a pause.

I have since created a small entry space for when you first walk in which acts as a sort of touch down area. It has a small shelf with various bowls for keys, leashes, change, etc. I knew that I wanted to add a mirror to the wall above the shelf, but the space was very tall and narrow, which made finding just the right mirror almost impossible. I remembered this image I had saved in my inspiration folder back in 2010, and kept my eyes peeled for a mirror with similar proportions.

via

We live a couple blocks away from a street lined with several thrift/antique shops. I try to scope them out once a month or so because honestly they don’t turnover their inventory that fast, and all the new things are set outside on the street so I can just oogle it all as I drive home everyday (while almost rear-ending the person in front of me because. priorities.). When my mom was in town visiting, we stumbled upon the perfect mirror and it was only $18!

The "wood" was actually this weird wood-look plastic, but I didn't really care because I had big plans to paint it. I hated that I found the mirror at this particular shop because I really dislike how manipulative the shop owner is. I'm all about wheeling and dealing when it comes to vintage finds, but this guy is just the worst. He'll do the whole "you better buy it now because I've had several people say they are coming back for it" every. single. time. Also, everything is usually marked up ridiculously high and then "on sale" and the sale price is what it should have cost to begin with. That kind of thing. When we went to track down our BFF shop owner, he informed us (again) that “all prices are negotiable” which I always think.. yay! haggling! In the past when I’d see a big piece (like a dresser or pair of chairs or something) that was marked $300 he’d take it down to $175 if I “get it right now” (which.. when else would I get it?), so I had high hopes for my (already super cheap) mirror. So after he dug it out of it’s super buried corner, he said “I’ll give you a good deal on this! how about 17.50!!” What. Whatever, I bought it anyway because I really liked it and I knew it would work perfectly in our entry. This guy.

Even though the frame was just plastic, the mirror was about 50lb, so I didn’t really want to take it apart to paint it. Instead I just covered the mirror  part with paper and taped it off.

I wanted it to be sort of a moody color because I had big plans for the shelf below it, which Derek made in high school shop. How cute is that? So I ended up going with a navy-ish color by Valspar in a satin finish because let's face it, the mirror is shiny enough. I primed the frame first with my trusty plastic primer and then sprayed on two coats of the navy. Luckily it dried a lot darker than the lid.. I was a little nervous at first that it wouldn’t be “navy” enough.

Afterward I removed all of the paper and tape and scraped off any excess paint from the mirror with a razor blade. 

I’m pretty pleased with how it turned out, and I love the little pop of color it adds to the space.