Repurposed Mirror Frame to Architectural Beauty
Old mirror frames are beautiful themselves, but adding another layer of vintage texture can turn it into a piece of architectural beauty. Here's how to add old ceiling tin to a has-seen-better-days mirror frame. Perfect backdrop for holiday decorating!
This divided mirror frame was found in a curbside pile. One of the 3 mirrors was broken. We removed the old mirrors and decided to place vintage ceiling tin in it's place, with a twist. Prep tin by scrubbing clean and spraying with polyurethane. It will seal in any lead-based, chippy paint and bring out the aged patina.
In the middle section, I wanted the tin to cover the whole middle, all the way up to the detailed gold embellishment at the top. Using simple printer paper taped together, we traced the edge to make a template to cut the tin from.
Using tin snips, cut the vintage tin following the template. Trim the bottom and side straight edges to fit your frame also. Flatten curved edges and corners with a needle nose pliers, if needed.
Using small nails, nail vintage tin onto frame all around the edges. Use a needle nose pliers to hold small nails to make hammering easier.
To create more interesting dimension, nail squares of tin to the back side of the outside sections. Cut tin slightly larger than the opening. Depending on your tin design, match patterns for a symmetrical look.
The wood part of this frame looked a little rough. I sanded the frames around to bring out the beauty of the old, raw wood. I also touched up the gold details with some craft paint. To seal it all, I brushed on a coat of water based poly, satin finish. It brought out the beauty of the wood, also.
The upcycled mirror frame never looked so good! It's architectural beauty and details show off much more beautifully with the addition of the old ceiling tin (got it off FB marketplace;)
See how beautifully it looks on our Harvest Mantel HERE.
For more vintage repurposed and upcycled projects, make sure to Follow Me on Hometalk!
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Nice project. Would work for a "farmhouse" or Victorian styled home.
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I love what you did!!
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