Transforming an IKEA Mirror With Wallpaper

4 Materials
$15
30 Minutes
Easy

The main mirror in our home is in the hallway at the bottom of the loft stairs. It's a very functional but not a particularly attrictive. There was nothing wrong with the IKEA mirror, it has nice curved corners and a wide frame. However, the white color of the frame looked a bit mehh on my off white colored walls. I wanted to turn it into a more attractive object on the wall rather than just a functional mirror. That's when I decided to get creative with wallpaper.


This was a large mirror, so I took it off the wall and outside to wallpaper as I had more room in the garden.

I chose a nice bright tropical print wallpaper for the mirror frame. Full details on the wallpaper are on the blog post at the end.


I chose a busy patterned wallpaper as this is easier to hide joins with when going around curves. A geometric wallpaper would have been harder to pattern match.

I measured both the long edge of the mirror and the short edges. I cut four strips of wallpaper, one for each edge of the mirror frame. I made sure that the wallpaper was wide enough for a small overlap on the edge of the mirror frame.


I made up some wallpaper paste according to the manufactures instructions. I brushed some of the paste onto the frame of the mirror and allowed this to dry. This was to help provide a key for the pasted wallpaper. Then I applied the paste to the back of the wallpaper strip and pasted it to the frame.

I pasted the 2 long strips of paper to the sides of the frame first. The great thing about using wallpaper over other papers is that it is strong and easy to move into place when wet.


Smooth out any bubbles as you lay the paper on the frame with a wallpaper brush.

I'd measured the wallpaper strips wide enough so that the wrapped around the frame to the back.

When going around the corners, cut slits into the wallpaper so that it bends easily around the curves.

I then wallpapered the top and bottom strips of wallpaper, trying to match the pattern as best I could.

Once the wallpaper was dried I then hung the mirror back up in the hallway upstairs. The frame really stands out now and brightens up a rather boring corner of the house.


Wallpaper is great for transforming boring objects into something more interesting I've even wallpapered my kitchen garbage bin to make it more interesting (see it here).

Resources for this project:
See all materials
Any price and availability information displayed on [relevant Amazon Site(s), as applicable] at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.
Hometalk may collect a small share of sales from the links on this page.More info
Claire at Pillarboxblue
Want more details about this and other DIY projects? Check out my blog post!
Go
Frequently asked questions
Have a question about this project?
Comments
Join the conversation
3 of 33 comments
Next