Scavenger Chic

Vintage Mirror Window Side Table

• By Joan
• July 29, 2018
• 3 Comments

This is a fun project I’ve been wanting to do for a while…create a vintage mirror from glass.  You know, when an old mirror has started to lose it’s silver on the back and it starts to look black around the edges.  Normally you might throw the mirror away, but for this project, that’s exactly the look I want.  The older cracky and spotty, the better.

The legs are a $10 thrift store find.  I am always on the lookout for cool and unique legs.

The vintage window  I’m using was leftover from my scavenging trip in 2015 to a school filled with old theatre props. You can see it propped up in the back.  It was buried in my pile of future projects but it still managed to keep it’s spray on snow in the corners.

Windows are not known for having equal borders, so first up, chopping all the excess window frame with a circular saw so I have an equal frame surrounding the entire window.

Use a dust mask and cut outdoors if you can to take extra precautions with the old paint.  Sand the newly cut edges.

The fake snow will just wash off but I’m using a razor blade to get rid of extra paint stuck in the corners as well as the frost.

The glazing on the outside looked like it was in great shape but started popping out all willy-nilly with all the scraping and cleaning.  Because I’m not using this window for outdoor use, I won’t be replacing the glazing but just using some caulk to hold everything together.

The window is all clean and dust free.  What I’m using to make the window into a vintage mirror is vinegar and water (about half and half) in a spray bottle, Rust-Oleum Mirror Spray, black spray paint and a couple pieces of paper towels for blotting.

I keep reading up on this process and everyone who has done it keeps telling me how easy it is,  but just to be sure I like the look, I taped off one of the panes as a test area.

Lightly spray the window with the vinegar mixture and while the window is still wet, spray an even coat of the mirror spray over the vinegar. Wait about 20 seconds then gently blot off the wet vinegar with the paper towel. Don’t let the spray paint dry so you’ll have to work fairly quickly.

Repeat one or two more times until you get the look you desire.  If you rub a little harder with your paper towel  you’ll get a larger black area showing thru. 

Where people diverge in their instructions is a couple people had a heavier vinegar solution in the beginning then did two coats of the mirror spray before blotting. I found another person who splattered a little black paint before beginning the vinegar, though I don’t think they sprayed the back of their window with black paint.

First pane was turning out pretty well so I was ready to do the rest of the window.

When the mirror paint was dry, I spray painted  the back with black paint.

The darker black areas are where I rubbed a little more of the mirror spray paint off and the black spray paint is showing thru.

If you’re using your mirror on a wall then you are already done.  I’m converting mine to a tabletop so I have a few more steps.

Using a pine 2×2, I cut a frame not quite as large as the window frame, sanded  and nailed in place.

Where the glaze fell out (pretty much everywhere) I’m recaulking the panes.

A couple pieces of scrap 1×6’s are cut to fit and span the inside of the frame. Nail from the outside.

Those 1×6’s are there to eventually hold the legs.

Paint the rest of the frame white to match the window.

The white was followed with a coat of teal chalk paint.  If you look closely you’ll see that some of the white from the original coat still peeks thru.

More sanding reveals all the layers of paint.  Finish with clear or vintage wax.

I spray painted the legs with a semi gloss black and screwed them to the window.

Creating the mirror was way easier than I thought it would be.  The hardest part (not that it was that hard) was prepping the window.

Until next time, stay inspired.

Shared at Talk of the Town, DIY Salveaged Junk Projects

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