My bathroom mirror

I have so many projects up my sleeve for the Spring and Summer months for our house that I am happy to say I can cross one of those projects off my list! And it's only February! I have wanted to frame our mirror in our bathroom for a long time. I searched online (and of course Pinterest) and read step by step on how to make it happen. I told Adam what I was wanting and he was all game, so we made it happen!

This April will mark 3 years that we have been in our house. We did a lot of updating when we first bought it. Mainly painting and flooring the entire house. Last summer I got the urge to stain our bathroom vanity. Our house was built in 2001 so if you are like me and have an older home, you probably have a lot of builder grade oak cabinets throughout. Well, that is our case so I wanted to experiment with staining. I have stained wood before back in high school when helping my dad. I remember wiping it on, wiping it off, wiping it on, wiping it off. It was very thin and watery. I knew I did not want to go that route so Pinterest again saved the day. I came across Gel Stain. I did A LOT of research on it and we decided to go with "Java" for the color of stain. I have been meaning to blog about the process of using the gel stain on our oak cabinets and haven't gotten around to it. We finished it back in August! I will do a post about it soon but basically the gel is thick, almost like pudding. It was marvelous! It took 3 coats (1 each night) and we did 2 coats of Polyacrylic. We still had some stain left over so Adam used it on our trim for the mirror. 

This project of framing our mirror cost us about $30.00. It was so simple and inexpensive- I can't believe we didn't do it sooner! 

Adam went to Home Depot and purchased window/door frame trim. It was pine wood and ready to be stained. The same with our vanity, he did 3 coats of gel stain but only 1 coat of poly. My awesome dad came over yesterday with his saw to help us.They measured the mirror and then my dad cut the trim to size. By the end, you will obviously have 4 individual pieces of trim. Everything I read online said to glue the corners together but my dad put in a tiny nail instead.
Once you have your corners glued or nailed together, it will be the size of your mirror. Turn it over, and add your glue. Liquid nails is suggested, but Adam asked a guy at Home Depot which type of glue would be best for mirrors and he directed him to something else.

**It is important to remember, whether you stain your trim or decide to paint it, you need to do at least 1 coat on the back as it will reflect in the mirror. **

As you are adding glue, don't put it on the edge closest to the inner mirror as it could seep out once pressed.
You basically get 1 shot at adhering it to your mirror so take your time!

And because everyone loves a good before and after pic- here you go!!


Before- very boring!

Adding the glue to the back of the frame

Almost finished!

Yay!

Our bathroom isn't fancy and builder grade mirrors are just boring! So add a frame to make a huge difference! 

We absolutely love the outcome and will be staining the kids bathroom vanity and adding a trim to their mirror this summer. Our next BIG project is to stain our oak cabinets in the kitchen. Our kitchen is pretty decently sized and we have lots of cabinets and an island to stain. It will take us a while to complete and I have to admit, I am already stressing about the mess my kitchen will be in while we do it! Ah! But, I know the outcome will be awesome so that is our next thing to do on my list. 

Add a frame people---you will not regret it!