When we bought our house, the guest bathroom was hideous.  My camera was stolen shortly thereafter so I don’t have before pictures.  Then I got to renovating…and forgot to take more. I did manage to download a few during so you can get an idea of what it looked like. 

Here is what the bathroom looked like after I stripped *heehee* off the wallpaper. 

The wallpaper was pretty horrific.  Pink acid washed jeans is probably the closest description.  Here’s another picture of it just in case you forgot how crazy-ugly it was:

(don’t look away.  you can do it.  stare the demon paper right in the eye and know that you have seen the soul of evil!)

Okay.  Now that you have seen what hades is wallpapered with…let’s move on to the real point of this post: the mirror.

Our mirror was just glued right to the wall…there was no possible way of removing it without it cracking worse than a plumber.

So we decided to frame around it.  We bought three 2×4’s and just beat the crap outta them.  Sorry mom for saying crap.  Oops.  I said it again.

I spent a couple hours taking out the aggression at the previous wallpaperers on these boards. 

Hammers, chisels, chains, anything with a pointy end was thrown at these things. 

Because that is how I would treat an acid-washed wallpaper fiend.  I fight like the devil.  Just call me Disco Inferno.

I had to make sure that I did it to all three sides – one broad face that would be parallel to the plane of the mirror and the two little faces that would be visible from the side. 

Then I rubbed some cherry colored stain on it.  Nothing fancy.  Just wiped on.  The wiped off. 

So now that the boards to frame out the mirror are prepped.  Let’s take a look at the planning process. 

Our mirror actually sits about four inches above the countertop ledge.  I did NOT want the frame to touch the ledge or even come close…afterall, I had to fit a paint brush in there, right?

And our second conundrum was that we didn’t own a router.  So that meant that we couldn’t cut the boards to fit the mirror inside…the wood must sit ON TOP of the mirror. 

Our little idea was to attach plywood strips to build up the wall around the mirror and allow the wood to sit flush with the mirror and still be sturdily attached to the wall.

It had to be sturdy.

Sturdy enough to support my boyfriend’s full weight. 

That’s the test.

with everything.

Can this toilet paper holder hold up?  Let’s put it to the 180+lb test!

Is this picture hook sturdy enough?  I guess I should hang on it and find out! 

I play Jeremy. I love your sturdy-test.  I mean, I passed it, right?!

After we LiquidNailed the plywood strips around the mirror, we stained it also so that it would blend in with the boards that were soon to be applied on top.

So now comes the tricksy part – the planning of the frame.

The frame was cut to show the maximum amount of mirror while still allowing for a three inch gap between the wood and the countertop ledge. 

This is how it went.

We measure the top piece first – then mitered the corners.

The second piece was the bottom which you notice was lined up so that the bottom of the board was in line with the bottom of the plywood strip.

This meant that we needed to screw in the bottom of the board as close to the bottom as possible.  Too high – we would crack the mirror.  Too low – well, nothing would stay put. 

After cutting all four pieces, we screwed the top and bottom part of the frame into the studs (every 16 inches). 

And the side pieces were attached to the top and bottom pieces by two screws.  One on top.  One on bottom.  But the key was to screw them not on the face of the board.

We went in from the side – diagonally.  A little wood glue on the back helped too.

You might be wondering why we did that. 

Well, it just so happened that there was no stud behind the wall right there.  If we had screwed the sides of the frame directly into the drywall, it could easily be karate-chopped out and there is no possible way that my boyfriend would give it his seal of approval. 

So there it is…one mirror renovation for the low, low cost of $12.  Not too shabby, huh?

So now that you got to the end of this super-long post, I would like you to talk for a bit.  My voice is just irritating. 

Any mirror framing stories out there?  Anyone add a little trim to your bathroom mirror? or how bout this one – any horrid wallpaper yarns you would like to share? 

I know you do 🙂  That stuff is worse than cliques in highschool.  I think 🙂