What to do with an Antique Mirror that has Issues



I love antique mirrors with all there imperfections but what do you do when it's a little too imperfect?  I recently picked up this dresser and mirror to makeover.  They were in great shape but the mirror needed a little love. 

There were two chunks missing from the back that made little chip looking holes and the bottom corner was missing a rectangle section of mirror. 


I could have lost the mirror and either replaced it with a chalk board or chicken wire but I decided to work with it.  

 I didn't take a before but the part missing on the bottom left corner was a perfect rectangle with very sharp edges it was really weird.  I wanted to make it blend better so to soften it I glopped on some Citrastrip paint stripper around the edges of the missing rectangle and also behind the chips.  The bottom right corner was fine but I decided to glop some stripper on there too.  I let it sit for about an hour to do its thing.  The stripper took off the mirror backing in a very natural looking way.  It worked great.  I cleaned it with paint thinner and sanded it a little to get the look I wanted. 


I thought I would just paint the back black but it looked too harsh to me especially behind the chips.  Then it occurred to me maybe book pages would look good or french script.  I googled french script images and printed one off.   I just taped it to the back of the mirror so it can easily be changed. I liked it.    


I was having a hard time photographing so I held up a vintage grain sack pillow so you could see it better.


It was a pretty easy way to save that old mirror.  What do you think? 





Mimi@blueroofcabin10 Comments