Scavenger Chic

Eiffel Tower, Mercury Glass Window DIY

• By Joan
• February 16, 2020
• 6 Comments

Eiffel Tower, Mercury Glass Window DIY

Last week I showed you half of the inspiration pictures I took  when I was out and about last year, and later on this week I’ll send the other half your way.

One picture I didn’t include because I really wanted to make it myself was this Eiffel Tower picture, it’s semi-obscured by a mercury glass effect type mirror.  I found this in a showroom of bathrooms in Kohler, Wisconsin.  You can see the gorgeous bathtub reflected in the mirror.

I’ve already done this mercury glass effect with a spooky face and a spooky baby  doll for Halloween, but this one could be kept up all year and as a bonus, it wouldn’t even scare the grandbabies.

Find a picture of the object you want to showcase.  Since I’m stealing the window for this project from my son, I decided  to just go with the Eiffel Tower.  He and his wife have actually been to France and have seen the Eiffel Tower, Europe is where they first started dating while studying overseas.

I also decided to include some French letters in the background  for a little flavor.  When you see the finished project you’ll see I needn’t have bothered with the letters, they are barely visible beneath the mirror glass but they seemed a great idea at the time.

With a photo editor, I did use the letters, collaged the pictures together , softened the image and added a vignette filter for the black edging.

Print out your picture the desired size to fit inside your window.  I usually use Microsoft Publisher to enlarge all my photos because you can enlarge them to the exact inch you want your poster.  This time I used BlockPoster, a free service offered online.  Not quite as user friendly, but it did work to print out my oversized Eiffel Tower.

Gather the rest of your supplies.  You’ll need a window, spray adhesive, Rust-Oleum Mirror Spray or Krylon looking glass spray paint and black spray paint.

I stole the window from my son, (Technically I didn’t steal it, it was left in my garage when he moved,  he didn’t have a place for it and I got permission to use it from my daughter-in-law  😆 ) It was one of a set of two, one had just a few bug bites and the other had a broken pane.

Since I had some leftover wood filler from an outside rotten wood project that I completed last summer, I went with the bug bite window.  The Varathane wood filler, goes on like Bondo.  You mix the filler with the stuff in the tube then you have a couple minutes to work with it before it gets super hard. The can says you can work with it for 15 minutes, it’s more like 3 minutes.  Within 15 minutes, it can be sanded.  The stuff stinks and you have to work fast but it does make a hard durable finish.

I know this window had been in my son’s house for a few years but I still poked around in the holes to see if there were any current critters.  Luckily I found none.

Slathered on and waiting to dry.

Cut out the poster to fit inside the window.  If you do tape any pieces together, make sure the tape is on the back side of the paper.

Tape off anything you do not want to be spray painted on the back of the window.  Clean the glass on the back of the window.

Use the black spray paint on the back of the window to cover any areas that will not have a piece of the enlarged poster as well as the edges of the frame.

This is the window held up, maybe it will make a little more sense.  The upper part of the window, the part that is all black on the left, does not have any of the enlarged poster.  The remaining parts of the window just have some of the edges lightly spray painted black.

Once the black spray paint is dry, use the spray adhesive to adhere the pieces you already cut to the back of the window.  Spray the fronts of the photos and lightly press down, getting rid of any air bubbles.

When you turn your window over, you should see your photo shining thru.

I had to sand the front of my window down because there were blue paint splatters everywhere.  I also sanded the insect damaged area that I had repaired, just visible in the bottom left corner.

Clean the glass well, then once again, use painters tape to mask off any areas you do not want to be covered with spray paint.

This is where the magic happens, and it only takes about a minute.

Make sure you have all your supplies handy….vinegar/water mixture in a spray bottle, mirror spray paint and a piece of paper towel for blotting.

Lightly spray the entire window with the vinegar/water mixture.  It should have little water bubbles.

Spray the entire window with the looking glass/ mirror spray paint.  Wait 20 seconds and give it a second coat.

Take the paper towel and gently blot all the little water bubbles.

This is the insect eaten corner after sanding.  If I was reusing this as a window, I would probably give it another coat of the wood filler to give the corner a crisp and clean look.

Since I sanded away all the finish on the window, I resealed and restained it with a vintage wax.  The vertical pieces on the right have the wax.

The insect eaten corner looks almost as good as new with the vintage wax applied.

When you blot the vinegar/water bubbles the black spray paint comes thru as black dots. I like to keep most of the vinegar spray on the edges.

Since the original  inspiration mercury glass Eiffel tower window was featured in a bathroom, this guy is temporarily hanging in my bathroom.  All I need now is that beautiful tub!

Find your inspiration and get started.

You can also use the same Eiffel Tower technique to make creepy windows for Halloween.  Click on the picture for the DIY link.

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