The Easiest, Fastest DIY Mirror

I love hanging mirrors all over my house, so much so that guests often say, "My goodness, you must really love looking at yourself in the mirror", to which I reply, "Could you move out of the way? I'm trying to look at myself in the mirror."



The problem with DIYing them, though, is that it can become pretty time consuming and tedious to glue a bunch of stuff around them. I made one of the ubiquitous wood shim starburst mirrors last year and although I loved how it turned out, it took forever to make and wasn't exactly the sturdiest thing to move into the new house. So I had this idea...

Ah ha! Cake pan! I bought a 10 inch cake pan and a 10 inch craft mirror at Michaels, and the mirror perfectly plopped right into the pan. Beware if you try this, the 12 inch mirror did not plop into the 12 inch pan. I walked around the store sneakily trying to wiggle and shove it into the cake pan trying to whistle innocently and look like I was shopping. I wonder if anyone noticed me. Glad I didn't shatter it. Anyway, it didn't work. I wish I'd tried the 14 inch cake pan and 14 inch mirror, and I also wish Michaels put the baking aisle right next to the craft mirror aisle. Oh well. It's not the craziest I've ever looked in the craft store, I'm sure.

So first you spray paint the pan whatever color you want. I used something antique brassy. Then drill holes into the sides of the cake pan, which was very easy.

And then you glue the mirror into the pan using any kind of glue with superlative words in it like "super" or "industrial strength" or animal words like "gorilla" are good, too. Then screw cabinet knobs into the the sides. Oh yeah, I also spray painted them to match. These little knobs cost me $1.50 each at Home Depot. Note: You have to buy shorter screws than the ones that come with the cabinet knobs so they'll screw in flush. I spray painted the heads of the screws, too.

Then you can use rope or ribbons or chains or dental floss or whatever to hang your mirror. I'm into a peach and navy thing lately, so that's what I used. Peach and navy ribbons. Note 2: The mirror will want to flop forward or backward when you hang it, so stick a piece of double sided foam mounting tape to the back to make it lie flat against the wall.

So there you go. And because I'm a blogger and it's January, I came up with some New Years resolutions to post. I think I was in the Target when I wrote them because it sort of ended up as a grocery list.

1. Eat more carrots.

2. Eat more tomatoes.

3. Come up with resolution that doesn't have to do with food.

4. Use more French phrases when I talk.

5. Eat more je ne sais quoi.

6. Pay more attention to my husband (except when he's talking about sports).

7. Be a better person.

8. Figure out what it means to be a better person.

9. Stop trying to be something I'm not.

10. Stop trying to be a better person.

11. Buy fresh cut flowers.

12. And some new socks.

13. Oh and I think we're out of half and half.