houses dressing: The mirror, mirror on the wall, goes bronze for Fall

After receiving a lot of compliments on the bronze urn in my Fall Table for Two post (here), I decided to try to mimic the bronze look on the frame of a mirror.

I sometimes jump into a project feet first and forget to take proper "Before" photos, (such as the case here) so please forgive this Spring/Summer photo that does't really feature the mirror very well, but it's the only one I could find, so it will have to do.

As you can see, it had a gray/whitewash finish... and even that's not the original color. Before the whitewash, it was gold, and not the good kind, like the real gold leaf mirror hanging over my china cabinet, but the plastic 'all one dimension' shade of gold.

The first thing I did, was remove as much of the white paint (acrylic craft paint) as possible, by soaking the frame (after removing the mirror of course) in warm water in the bath tub! After about 20 minutes, I took it out side and sprayed the paint right off with a water hose.

To achieve the bronze look, I gave it several light applications of black spray paint, followed by brown. Making sure that each coat was just a light dusting of paint so that it built up in layers, creating texture while allowing both paint colors, as well as the original gold to be visible.

I used gold Rub n' Buff to highlight the edges and detailed areas, and then went over the entire frame with dark furniture stain to 'tone down' the gold and fill in the areas not covered by the spray paint.

To add more depth and color variations, I mixed the Rub n' Buff with dark brown craft paint to create a bronze color and sponged it over the frame, then did the same thing again, only with a light brown paint mixed with the gold, and made a copper color. To give it a a hint of verdigris like the urn's, I mixed a small amount of turquoise craft paint with water, creating a wash, then lightly brushed it on in random areas, then wiped it back off with a cloth, leaving some of the color behind.

After letting all the paints cure over night, I put the mirror back in and hung it in the dining room, I love how the new finish looks with the bronze chandy, and it also works well with the other metallic finishes in this room.

The mirror's new and improved bronze Fall look, turned out so well, I don't think it will ever go back to it's Spring & Summer whitewashed finish. I'm so grateful to those who complimented my bronze urn, you helped to inspire me to take on this project and transform this plain mirror into a bronzed beauty!