DIY Beachy Wood Starburst Mirror

I saw this mirror in a store I love here in Utah, but it was $395.00.  I just don’t have that kind of cash right now.   I showed the picture to the hubs and he said that “You could totally make that.”  “I”, “Me, Lynn” “BY MYSELF” could totally make it.  Uhh… what?!  He said he would give me tips, but I was pretty much on my own with this one.  OK.  Hear me ROAR ladies.  That’s right, I used the saw, the man tools, and I got crafty with MY BAD SELF!

My sister in-law and I decided we would both make one of our selves.  SO! Here is how we recreated this beauty.

We started by collecting wood that looked reclaimed, like the wood on the frame.  We took some wood out of a friends yard, a few pieces off a really old looking pallet, and went to the Re-store to buy a few left over molding and other wood boards.  I also bought a 4ft pieces of cedar from Home Depot.  We started by cutting the wood boards between 6-9 inches long.  We cut the tops at angles between 20 and 45 degrees.  We then cut, using the chop saw, and angle from the top to the bottom of the wood.

We each laid out the pieces to see how we wanted it to be.

We first cut out all the pieces that would be “kissing”.  There are six sets of the ones that face each other,  “kiss”.   And then just like a puzzle we pieced them together to be the overall size we each wanted.

After this we numbered them on the back side.  Then transferred them into my laundry room for painting/distressing.

We used multiple painting techniques to give them each some character.  We used 220 and 100 sandpaper to rough some of the paint up.  We did a crackle finish on two, with silver underneath and blue on top.  And I’ll talk about that more towards the end of the post.  But, we had a fun time play with different techniques.

After it was dry I started to put it together by glue the sides of each piece together.

I clamped a few of them together to help make a stronger hold.

After it was all nice and glued.  I added a few small pieces of thin wood to the back for added support.

Okay, maybe more than just a few….

This is going above my bed.  I wanted to make it strong  I am sure there is a better way to do this, but this is the best thing I could think of.

I then placed some heavy books and stuff on top of it till it was dry.

When it was dry and nice and strong I flipped it over to add the mirror.  I had a left over mirror from my gallery wall.   I took one of them down from the wall.  Cuz  the one next to the M, it made it look like “MOO” and it was driving me nuts.

So I had the mirror and it was wrapped in jute.  Great for the look I was going for.

I would have glued or nailed the mirror on, but I decided instead to use some heavy duty Velcro.  That might seem weird, but it works great.  And if it breaks or I need to remove it for some reason, I can easily take it off.

I added some picture hanger hooks and wire to the back and I AM DONE!

I love the look  It totally goes with my “beachy barn look”  I need to find a better name for that…. any suggestions?

Here it is all done hanging above my bed!

It’s not a perfectly shaped as the one I saw in the store, but I like it this way.

Oh! And by the way.  This starburst mirror did not cost me  $395, it cost me about $10!!!

Here is the crackle I mentioned above.  I wanted the metallics to be subtle.

Mostly we painted, sanded, painted more, sanded more. It was all an experiment.

On both the white above I paint a few different colors, let it dry, then sanded with 220 sand paper.  That was already white then I started.  The blue one, I painted blue then sanded, then added a navy blue glaze, then sanded again.  I white washed the thin one next to the blue one.  A few I left natural.  Mostly the cedar ones.

I just added the blue to this already white board then sanded with 220.

Some we dinged up with a hammer or nails.

We also added a little gold leaf to others. You can’t see it very well in the pictures.

This was a fun project.  Now I need to work on that pillow situation 😉

Always a project at my house

Always getting crafty with my bad self!