Mirror are my absolute favorite thing to refinish. I guess because of all that detail.. thats what draws me to them.
cleaning an ornate mirror takes so much time. I use a can of air first to get the dust off. then a very soft toothbrush to get into the details. then spray it again. then a light wipe down of water.. that’s what I do (most times)! what do you do?
taped off this mirror.. but another good idea I have used in the past is to use those paint cards you get in the paint department and stick them all around. works really well!
2 coats of heirloom traditions cobblestone paint. wait a day for that to really dry… followed by a quick coat of general finishes high performance top coat because glazing was next.
general finishes pitch black glaze was applied. I entered their design challenge last year and I ended up coming up as a winner of some prizes. yay! so anyway, moving on… I usually use a chip brush to apply my glazed because im kind of rough with it and I like to really push it into the crevices. as you can see here, it’s covered. next step is to wipe it back with a clean cloth.
Wow! LOOK AT THAT DETAIL and how it just pops now!?
another example
with the glaze applied…
I sealed again using the same top coat by general finishes… then I used silver metallic wax to go over the finished product – I just applied some to my finger and basically just dragged it across the mirror. all of the raised areas would pick it up.
Final Result!