Getting Creative with Oversized Mirrors and DIY Framework

                                                             via Design et al

 

                                                 via McGill Design Group

 

Decorative oversized mirrors can be seriously expensive- if you buy them outright, framed and ready to be hung. Over the last year, I have discovered and incorporated a less expensive alternative by having mirrors cut and installed by my local glass company and then adding DIY framework, once the mirror is on the wall.

Today I wanted to inspire you with the design possibilities for your own home, walk you through how we did it and share with you how we were able to do it at a very small fraction of the cost of buying an oversized framed mirror outright.

In the last year, I have worked with my local glass company to install a large 4′ x 6′ mirror over our dining room buffet:

 

and we also had one installed behind our shelves in the narrow bar we built in the dining room as well:

 

So I learned through this process that local glass companies are more than eager to sell you and custom cut a mirror to your exact specifications.  Better yet, they will also come out and install it on the wall for you just like they did for our over our buffet and our built-in bar that we just finished.

 

 

 

The mirror costs are based the thickness that you would want and the thiner the mirror, the less expensive it is. If you’re doing framework or shelving over the mirror, all you’ll need is the minimum thickness 1/4″ (the cheaper route).

When ordering a mirror from a glass company, you can either give them your measurements or they will come out and measure for you. For both my buffet and bar project, I gave them my exact measurements over the phone and they arrived a day later with the cut mirror, ready to install.  Installation took less than 20 minutes! It really was THAT easy!  By the way, just to give you a feeling on cost, the mirror and installation for my bar was right around $175.00.

You will have your choice to either have the mirror glued to the wall with some sort of high powered glue or set into mirror holders that are attached to studs.  I opted for the holders because they can hold hundreds of pounds and I didn’t want to have to deal with any glue removal issues down the line.

 

For adding decorative framework to a mirror, once it’s installed on the wall, the possibilities are endless. You can get really creative with standard trim molding or cut your own custom framework.

For the mirror over our buffet, we framed it using wider decorative molding and a 1-1/2″ square (Baluster I think it’s called) trim piece.  We butted up the square trim piece along the outside of the wide molding, to not only add thickness, but to hid that we had to glue a 1/4″ piece of particle board to raise up underneath the molding to be flush with the mirror.

Because the mirror itself is 1/4″ thick, the molding would not be flush with the mirror along the wall (we didn’t want to just glue molding onto the mirror itself, we wanted the trim attached to the wall), so we had to building it up, attach the whole piece to the wall and then it was flush (I hope my explanation here makes sense):

 

 

 

Once we attached the trim around the mirror (be sure and paint the backside that will be at the mirror because you can see the back in the mirror reflection), we caulked, primed and then painted the trim.  Now it all looks like one piece or a custom frame.

 

All of the trim molding pieces we used are standard and available at Lowe’s and Home Depot.  Again, you can really get creative with framework design just by using standard trim molding or you can cut your own design.  Another possibility is to order a custom frame through a frame company as well.

I also wanted to give you a lot of other mirror design possibilities in addition to our projects to show you the types of projects that people have done.

 

 

 

 

 

There is another mirror design option as well and that’s buying and installing mirror tiles. This would also be handled through your local glass company for information on ordering and installation.

 

 

 

 

 

So many really creative ways to fill a large wall and add some drama with oversized mirrors.  Even if you have always thought about mirrors in a shelf or a oversized mirror in a closet or a bathroom, just call your local glass company and talk with them about the project.  I was amazed by how easy and how inexpensive it is to add mirroring.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Cheers!

Cyndy