Jenni B Originals: Faux Framed Mirror

When we moved into our new home a couple of months ago, I noticed a big dark spot under the edge of one of the bathroom mirrors (see photo below). It was pretty noticeable, but I knew there had to be a solution. After looking on the internet for some ideas, I found some tutorials where people had just added a frame of molding to the outside of their builders’ grade mirrors. The look was totally custom! With the help of our contractor, who was doing some other work in our home, we put this baby up in about 15 minutes flat! Better yet, the materials only ended up costing around $50.

While I had my contractor help me with the cuts and adhering the mirror, I don’t see why anyone with a miter saw or miter box couldn’t do this project with a couple of people.

What you’ll need:

Enough molding to surround your bathroom mirror

Paint and/or glaze

Paintbrush

Miter saw or miter box and hand saw

Silicone & silicone gun

Painter’s tape

1. Buy your molding. I discussed my mirror idea with my contractor, Kelly. He had never seen it done before but thought it sounded like a fun idea. He helped me measure how much molding I was going to need. I went to my local home improvement store and found some molding that you could buy by the piece instead of by the foot. What I found was white plastic “casing” that was a little over $11 per piece.

2. Start painting! I decided on a creamy white paint that I already had at home. I only did one coat and then added some glaze afterward.

3. Here is a photo of the pieces after I put on the glaze (Mine was Van Dyke Brown from Sherwin Williams. To apply, just paint on a tiny amount with a sponge brush and then wipe off with a soft cloth.). I also ended up going back to the store and buying an additional piece of wood to add to the original. This made my frame extra wide but still looks like one piece. These pieces were $5 each.

4. Now you’re ready to cut your pieces. Remember – it is always better to cut them a hair too big and trim them down if needed. You’ll never be able to add back to the wood! We measured the outside edge of the mirror to see how long the pieces needed to be and cut them down with the miter saw at a 45 degree angle.

1 5. Then we measured the inside edge of the large molding piece and cut the smaller board to fit the inside edge. Here are the boards after cutting:

6. Now adhere the boards to the mirror. I was planning to use Liquid Nails to adhere to the mirror, but since some of my boards were made of plastic, my contractor suggested we use silicone. Just the clear kind you would use to caulk a bathroom tub with. He said there was a good chance the Liquid Nails would melt through the plastic. I couldn’t argue with that – he really knows what he’s doing.

We just took the piece that would be at the bottom of the mirror and ran a long bead of silicone across the bottom, then dotting some silicone every 6 inches. We put the sides on next and the top piece on last. Then we went ahead and added the smaller pieces.