Mirror Makeover

Wow!! It's been a while. This is actually a project I just finished today, and thought I would end my large absence from blogland with. I have seen awesome chalkboards all over pinterest lately and wanted to make my own. Unfortunately, I wanted mine to be really big, and I couldn't figure out how we were going to go about making one. And by we, I mean Brandon! :) As we were throwing out ideas, I happened to remember a big mirror I had gotten a while ago from a hotel furniture liquidation store.

This is the original mirror. (You can tell we had recently moved in!!) It was the perfect size, so I decided to make the mirror into a chalkboard. Here are the steps I took, and it turned out pretty well.

1. I got primer spray paint (Valspar Primer from Lowe's) and primed the inside mirror part.

2. I then spray painted the outside frame section. It was okay if the spray paint got on the mirror part, because I would be painting over that with black chalkboard paint. I can't remember the exact spray paint color, but it was by Krylon.

3. Then I taped off my edges. Make sure that you use a good painters tape. I recommend Frog Tape. It's a little more pricey, but it hasn't caused me any issues in the past. I didn't use it on my project, and I regret it. I just used some off brand that I had on hand and there was a lot of bleed through.

4. Once everything is taped off good, start painting. You don't need to use a good brush around the edges, because chalkboard paint will just ruin it. On the inside part, I just used a small roller. I ended up having to do 3 coats of paint, and I let them dry 24 hours between each coat. This is what my can recommended. 

5. Once everything was dry, I took the paint off and then coated the entire chalkboard in chalk. I've read that this helps seal it and helps it erase better in the future. It seemed to do fine on mine, and I'm not sure if this step was necessary but I would rather be safe than sorry.

6. Then I borrowed my brother's projector to trace my design onto my chalkboard. There are other ways to do this, and many other tutorials online, but this was what I had handy. It worked fine; just make sure you don't bump the projector. The finished product is below.

I used this design from http://blog.jennimullinix.com/spring-cleaning-our-hearts/. It looked like this originally.

And here is my chalkboard up on the wall. I am so excited about changing it out for the holidays. It really is the perfect size. I definitely wanted it over-sized!! :)

It's good to be back!!

- Ashley