Create Your Own DIY Decorative Wall Mirror in a Few Easy Steps!

Tresha Armstrong
by Tresha Armstrong
9 Materials
$30
3 Hours
Easy

Mirrors aren't just a way to check your reflection, they can also be a fantastic method of artistic expression and decoration. With that in mind, I decided that I would try my hand in making my own decorative mirror that I could use to spruce up my hallway or living room. I went with a silver design to match my existing décor, but you can use other colors if you have a particular motif that you want to match.

Even better, this design is easy to modify when you’re building it. So, if you want to build a few of these to help carry a design throughout your house, then doing so can also be quick and easy!

DIY Decorative Mirror

Tools and Materials

  • Sharpie or another marker pen
  • Hot glue gun
  • Heat gun (or a blow dryer)
  • Spray paint (primer black and final coat color)
  • Ten-inch round wall mirror
  • Foamboard
  • A roll of parchment paper
  • Gorilla glue for the glue gun
  • Small tumbling tower blocks (like from a small Jenga game)


Gather Your Materials
Gather Your Materials


Everything I needed for supplies I was able to pick up from a single trip to my local DIY store. If you don't have a dedicated DIY store in your area, then you should still be able to find everything you need in a megastore like Walmart. I also used around 150 total small tower blocks which meant buying five separate block games. You might have to buy more or fewer games depending on what is available, and what you want in an end product.

Once you’ve already got a completed project under your belt and you know what you’re in for, you can feel free to get more diverse with your supplies. You might want to use a different shape for your large wall mirror, different shaped blocks, or another color. As long as you can glue, there really is no wrong answer.

Trace the Mirror
Trace the Mirror


Once I had all of my equipment and pieces ready, it was time to get started. I recommend you use a large clear table for this, but if you don't have one available then the floor can work just fine. Just be sure that your working surface is hard and steady, which will make it harder to slip.

The first thing I did was place my foam board down on the table, and then place my wall mirror on top. Make sure you put the mirror towards the center of the board because you're going to want some room around the outside to work with. I secured my mirror by pressing down on it with one hand, and then simply traced around the outside with my sharpie.

I'm going to use this outline as a guide to place my pieces later, so once I was done tracing, I removed the mirror.

Lay Out Your Design on Parchment Paper
Lay Out Your Design on Parchment Paper


Since I’m going to be using hot glue to hold my pieces in place, I put down a sheet of parchment paper over my traced circle. You can see through this just fine, and it prevents the glue from sticking to the board later, so this is a must.

I flattened this with the curly side facing down, so it wouldn’t curl up and be difficult to work with. If you have stubborn parchment paper, then you might want to weight down the side with something while we work on this step.

Once the paper was secured, I starting using my blocks to create an outline of the traced circle. The idea is to have all of the first circle of blocks touching each other on the inside corners. Be sure to make the circle of blocks slightly smaller than your traced circle. This block circle is going to be sitting on top of our finished mirror, so a larger ring than the traced circle isn't going to work.

Glue the Blocks Together
Glue the Blocks Together


Now that I have the first ring of blocks completed, it was time to start gluing on the outer rings. I did this by using hot globs of glue to the outer corners of the bricks and then pressing a new brick into this spot. I did this all the way around the outside of the ring until a complete circle was completed. Once I finished the first ring, I started on the second, and then went onto the third, fourth, and fifth.

For your design, you can use as many or fewer rings than I used, depending on how big you want the completed project. A couple of things to keep in mind is that once you reach five rings, the gaps between the blocks is probably going to be too wide to fit another ring. This might happen earlier too if you use a different sized mirror or blocks.

The other thing to remember is to keep your blocks as straight as possible as you glue them. Mine were a little bit off, which I didn’t notice until it was too late to fix them, but yours don’t have to be! When all of these blocks were glued in place, I used a heat gun to remove any glue strings, but a hair drier can work just as well if you don't have a heat gun handy.

Spray Paint
Spray Paint


After removing the glue strings, I let the blocks set for about an hour to make sure the rest of the glue had settled. When it had, I took the blocks outside, removed the parchment paper and placed them on a spray-painting surface. Be careful that the blocks don’t break apart when you remove them from the paper.

The first coat I applied was the black primer, which I made sure to get on all exposed sides of the bricks. When this was dry, I changed to chrome spray paint, which I covered on all sides of the bricks, front and back. Wait for this to dry, and then move onto the last step!

Attach Mirror
Attach Mirror


With my blocks painted and dried, I turned them face down on a clean surface. Now, grabbing my mirror, I also placed this face down on top of the center of the blocks, so it was resting firmly in the middle. Taking my glue, I ran a line around the outside, being sure that none of it seeped onto the other side of the mirror or through the gaps in the blocks.

Wait another half an hour for the glue to try, and that’s it!

DIY Silver Mirror

Now that everything is glued and dried, you can finally place your completed decorative wall mirror in its place of honor. If you want to rest it on a shelf, you can do so easily, otherwise, you might want to attach a hook to the back to place it on a wall. If you do decide on the hook route, then be sure to place the latch at the top of the mirror, and not on the bricks.

If you tried this project out for yourself then let us know how it worked out for you, and what changes you might make with a second run. Please, feel free to pass the project onto your friends if you think they would like it and, for a whole range of new DIY ideas updated regularly, don’t forget to bookmark Hometalk!

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Frequently asked questions
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  1 question
  • 17335038 17335038 on Apr 17, 2021

    Is it anchored to the wall at all, or how do you keep it from tipping over if the shelf is bumped?

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