On the third post of the continuation of my son’s owl bathroom renovation I am sharing how I framed out the builders grade mirror, for free, using fence pickets.
Lately we’ve been over at the apartments sprucing up the lower unit of the grey building.While we were there I couldn’t help but notice the fence in the backyard. The fence is in great need of an overhaul, but since fences are kinda pricey it has been put on the back burner while other more important projects get done first. The poor fence has more pickets missing every time we stop over. Quite a few were laying on the ground just begging me to take them and repurpose them into something great :). So that’s just what I did. I had been throwing around different ideas for framing out my son’s mirror and I figured these fence pickets would work out perfect!
Before I could do anything with the frame I had to clean the dirty wood since I didn’t want any dirt, pieces of wood or paint chips anywhere in the bathroom (or my home, for that matter). I took a bunch of pickets outside to the patio table. I used a tupperware container of warm water with dawn dish soap and a scrub brush to scrub the boards clean of all the dirt and loose wood and paint. After scrubbing I rinsed the pickets with a bucket of water and laid them out flat to dry in the sun.
Now that I had clean pickets I started measuring and planning out my mirror frame. I decided to go with a butt joint since not only is it the easiest to do (beginner logic at it’s best here ? but I thought it would look the most rustic of all the different joints. I cut two pickets down to 37″ and two down to 35 1/2″. I’m proud to say I used the miter saw all by my lonesome and I didn’t mess up at all on any measurements or cutting and I still have all my fingers (totally joking, safety first guys)!
I did a dry fit and taped the pickets up on the mirror to see how it would look. They looked pretty darn good just the way they were. And yes, that is my son playing in the sink with about 25 owl cups (the things you’ll let your kids do to get some work done ;).
After the dry fit I used the clear coat from my cabinet transformations kit to seal the wood and prevent any pieces of wood from coming off that I might have missed while scouring the pickets clean.
I then debated on how to attach the wood to the mirror. I thought about gluing them but I had no idea which glue was the best for this project and some of the pickets were slightly warped. Then Cory suggested velcro. Of course!! I can’t believe I didn’t think of that! That completely solved all my “attachment” problems plus I still had a bunch left over from my DIY storage ottoman from a thrifted end table.
I gathered up my supplies: pickets, velcro and scissors and got to work putting the velcro on the mirror and then matching it with the pickets.
This part of the project couldn’t have been any easier!
The pickets were very lightweight so I have no fear of them falling off the mirror. I simply pressed the board to the mirror to attach and if need be I can pull it off at any time. Easy peasy.
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source: thriftyartsygirl.blogspot.com
