Mirror, Mirror on the wall...

Mirror, Mirror on the wall. Who is the fairest of them all? Seriously, I can't decide. I love them both!

I found these mirrors at a local thrift store. Not both at the same time of course, this girl needs an excuse to go "pop some tags". It's all in the name of addiction inventory right...? I was SO excited to rehab them, that I forgot to take before pictures of everything. Fail, I know. I have a few "rehab in progress" pictures but nothing exciting enough to post. I guess what really matters is that the final projects turned out amazing...AND I DO have pictures of those!

This stuff was in awesome shape considering someone dumped them at the thrift. Their loss, my gain! The round mirror was boring brown, but the details were so cool. The ornate carved looking mirror, well it was just a junky plastic (or so I thought), BUT the styling was so pretty I couldn't pass it up. Turns out this mirror is more than junky plastic, it's my diamond in the rough, but I'll get back to that a little later... The best part is that it's super light weight, so really perfect for anyone that has to use command hooks to hang stuff, like someone who lives in an apartment and can't put holes in the walls. --OR someone who has a "chronic rearranging disorder" and doesn't WANT to put lots of holes in their walls ---NOT that I would know anything about that though...

So each piece got finished differently. I immediately knew I wanted to paint the round brown metal mirror in silver paint and shimmery chocolate glaze to bring out the raised pattern. I finished the mirror with wax. Don't choke on your Diet Coke - That's not a typo, I did finish metal with wax! Not a usual use for wax, but whatever... -It looks super cool, is really durable and will be a cinch to clean. Here's the finished product. Total Hollywood Glam!

The next mirror is my "plastic" beauty. Okay, it was actually a drab, barfy kinda gold color...but that's totally fixable. It was just so detailed. It was stamped by a company named Burwood, so of course I did a little research. Turns out this is a Syroco styled resin mirror. Syroco or Syracuse Ornamental Company, circa 1890s, originally made these mirror frames by pressing wood pulp into ornate molds. Around the 1930s they added other types of molded products such sculptures and sconces, and started using other materials as well. In the 60s Syroco was sold and they began using more injection molds and plastic resins to make their ornate frames. --Ok, enough history lesson, back to my project. This little gem needed special treatment cause resin type materials don't always take paint so well. I had a vision of a bright berry colored mirror with a distressed gold finish. I sprayed her with several coats of primer and then painted her in this berry blossom color. Love! Then I started to distress...and that's when it went ALL WRONG. The gold wasn't coming through, only my white primer. Not sure WHAT I was thinking when I did that?!?! Nothing another coat of paint and polyurethane matte finish can't fix - Much better! Now she's pretty, durable, perfect, and for sale.

 

Both of these gems are available for purchase. Please visit my etsy shop for all the details www.remaderenegade.etsy.com

***Update - The pink Syroco style mirror has been sold! The round silver mirror is still for sale. Happy Shopping!