Mirror, Mirror on the Wall

 

 

A friend gave me this beautiful antique mirror for a Christmas gift.  It had very special carvings all around the frame, in the shapes of berries and leaves, which were painted in soft red and green.

 

 

I hung it in the kitchen and it has been the perfect accent on the wall there.

 

A few weekends ago, I put up beadboard wallpaper in the kitchen as a backsplash.  And of course that caused a domino effect for a few things.  Including the mirror.  The colors of the berries and leaves just didn’t blend quite as well as I hoped. 

 

 

Since I loved where it hung in the kitchen, and didn’t want to move it, I decided that changing the colors would be the most practical solution.

 

Thankfully, I knew this particular friend would have no problem with me changing that kind of detail.  In fact, if she reads this, she probably won’t even be surprised.

 

 

I started by painting with light brush strokes over the whole frame, using our white trim and cabinet paint.  It definitely needed more dimension, so after looking through my stash of acrylic paints, I found the one I had used on the bathroom vanity.  It’s kind of a light charcoal gray.

 

 

I used a small artist’s paint brush and just a little paint to go over the berries and leaves, and here and there along the edges.

 

But to help it keep the aged look it already had, I felt I should layer it with one more color.  So I found another can of almond colored paint in the basement, and used the artist’s brush to paint over the berries and leaves, and around the flat parts of the frame.  I tried to leave some of the original color showing through in spaces, as well as leaving the darker paint in the crevices alone. 

 

 

And that’s it!  I love the mirror – and for me, the new paint job makes it fit perfectly into our kitchen.

 

 

Before and After

 

 

         

 

Have you ever changed a piece you loved, and ended up loving it even more?