Before & After: Asian Mirror

before

I found this mirror shortly after moving from Los Angeles to Pennsylvania (these photos were taken in the backyard of our previous apartment).  It was sitting among other sad old mirrors at The Salvation Army... and I bought it for $9.99!   As you can see, the shape is great but the finish is, well, horrible.  It has a gritty silvery painted finish (like it had been spray painted with some sort of rough paint?  so weird).

It reminded me of this beauty, available on 1st Dibs.

Obviously, the mirror had good potential.  So, all this thing needed was a coat of paint.  I lightly sanded it down, to clear the rough spots.  Then, I took a paint brush and painted the frame with a semigloss black paint.  Easy enough!  While the newly painted black frame was a HUGE improvement, it didn't seem like enough.  So, I added a skinny stripe of metallic paint (the same color I used to paint the sunburst mirror in the guest room).

I love the way it turned out!

before:

after:

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