DIY {Rustic Mirror Frame}

Well hello there kind readers. I've got a DIY for you today! How to take a regular mirror and make it rustic. This diy takes a little bit more work and probably the help of a partner. Your partner will need to help with mounting it to the wall for sure. You will need power tools like a table saw and a circular saw. My dad happens to have a wood shop so I sought out his help for space and tools. You may have those tools on hand or you may have a buddy that can help you. I do also show you the picture frame at the bottom of the post that I did by myself with only using a handsaw for cutting. That is definitely a solo project.

On with the mirror...
I started with a discarded mirror. Why was it discarded you ask? Had it been rude? Had it made fun of me? Nothing of the sorts. Actually, we replaced it with a newer, prettier model. So it was was far more shallow reasons than hurt feelings. It was time to make this old mirror into something new. Give it new life!

I was driving past a Feed & Seed close to home and saw a FREE sign near their old pallet wood. I stopped and scrounged around gathering pieces I thought would work well. I knew I wanted to make a frame for the mirror so I tried to get long, wide pieces. When I had all the wood and I was looking at the mirror I though... now how am I going to do this? Glue it to the mirror? I asked my dad for advice and with his trusty carpenter skills he says, "let's build a frame to go around the mirror that will just hang on the wall around it" PERFECT!

Here is the plain boring mirror that used to live in our main bathroom

The wood I found on the side of the road. Classy. Reeeeal classy.

 We got a piece of plywood and measured out a rough frame. The finish doesn't matter because you'll be covering this up with the pallet wood.

Here's where you need a power tool. You will need to cut the frame out. I did some cutting too! Just no photos of that :)

Test it and make sure it fits around your mirror. It doesn't have to be a snug fit. The pallet wood is wider than the frame so there will be an overhang.

Go ahead and map out what piece of wood you want where. This is also where you might need to make a few cuts with the table saw to make sure your 4 pieces fit somewhat flush. This is a rustic mirror. No snug fits here!

We used liquid nail and glued the pallet wood directly to the board.

Use clamps to get the pallet wood to stick. We let this sit for about 2 days.

Ask the shop dog if it passes inspection!

It's a go!

After it dries and the pallet wood is pretty firmly glued you are ready to mount it to the wall over your mirror. This frame was pretty large so it I definitely needed help getting it nailed to the wall. It isn't heavy it's just awkward. If you've got a smaller mirror and frame then you can do it yourself.

I had a blank wall in the bedroom where I wanted it to go.

We used mirror clips to hang the mirror. I found these at the hardware store near bathroom mirrors. We measured a BUNCH and drew all over the walls. I can never take this down basically. Unless we plan on using the wall as a dartboard.

Mirror is up. Next step - frame. We screwed the frame directly into the wall. Yep. Never coming down.

Also - see the bottom right part of the mirror? That happened during dragging the mirror all over creation. It broke. I was determined to still recycling this mirror so I just resolved myself to work with it.

The frame covered the break for the most part. I did use a little sliver of wood to hide it a bit. Never surrender! (please excuse the mess in all surrounding areas)

I could not have done this without the help of my dad and my husband. Especially with my bum wrist at the time. It was hard to grip the mirror for carrying. I wore leather gloves so I could keep a better grip on it. I did have scraps left over that I glued to a picture frame. I used a hand saw to trim the pieces down to fit. In one corner I just used a bunch of little pieces. With it being rustic you don't have to make it perfect.