Rustic Modern Mirror

I am so excited about today's project, this piece has inspired my home office makeover (and boy does it need one baby!) I will reveal multiple projects in the days to come from the makeover, one I am doing today, which is making a desk out of two sofa tables.  But for now, I am happy to share with you my Rustic Modern Mirror that I had so much fun making.

I have had the mirror for a few months, and up until now it has been part of my gallery wall in another room.  I had paint stir sticks left over from my first starburst mirror (I used about 25 for this project) which you can find in my archives from earlier this year.  I wanted this mirror to have a more rustic feel for my office space that I am working on.

I enlisted the help of my trusty little sidekick, the Robin to my Batman if you will.  I give you, my wire snips.  Besides a stack of sandpaper, hot glue gun, endless supply of Diet Coke, and my needle-nosed pliers, these are in my Top 5 Must Have Tools.  I even counted them just now and there are 5, so my coffee really is working.  These things are AWESOME, and they trimmed the rough edges of the stir-sticks quite nicely. 

This is the first layer, I would suggest facing the stir-sticks to the back of your project since the printing and indentations may show through your paint if they face forward.  In addition, to give the mirror depth, I cut a few stir-sticks in half and thirds and added them randomly, hot-gluing each one in place as I went.  My favorite part about crafting, and creating things I love for my home is that it does not have to be perfect.  Most of the time we are the only ones who know the whack-a-doo way that we had to get a piece to come together. 

Do you want to know one of my dirtiest little secrets (oh yes, this blog is chock full of them!) Most of the time I do not paint the back of my projects.  And I sometimes have quite obvious errors that I have to go back and tweak until they work.  But not until they are perfect.  With my youngest three kids being 6, 2, and 1, I let perfect go.  And I cannot tell you how much happier I am.  True to form, I digress, I'm sorry.  I just have fun talking to you and I love sharing ideas with you.  And, I want to see every woman let go of burdens like this that hold us back.  Yes, you thought you were going to read about my mirror.  That's dirty secret #2 for today, I like to TALK. 

Before I blasted her with a few coats of flat white Krylon spray paint, I used a piece of paper to cover the mirror.  Sometimes a bit of paint still gets inside, but it comes off very easy.

I knew I wanted the mirror to be white, but with the light-tone wood of the paint stir-sticks I was not going to get the distressed look I wanted by sanding.  In this case, I add paint.   

I use a foam brush, load some acrylic paint onto it (I used charcoal), and blot it a few times so it is not saturated, and begin to very lightly go over the areas I want to shabby up a bit.

I use a damp paint rag to blend in or correct any area that I got carried away, and I repeated this process until I had achieved the look I wanted.  I cannot wait to share with you the other pieces that I am re-vamping for the home office makeover.  None of them are new.  I am using only things that I already had, or pieces that I have picked up along the way.  My goal is to only purchase the paint for the walls.  Speaking of paint, the store opens in 30 minutes so I am heading out for some retail paint-therapy.  Here is the inspiration behind a new space to create, write and spend time making things for those I love.  My take on Rustic Modern:

Have a blessed day, xoxo

Tanya 

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