Beaded Glass Mirror

Cheri Reichart
by Cheri Reichart
7 Materials
After my mirror mosaic and many changes in my master bath I wanted something just as different in my other bathroom. I had a large builder's grade mirror and this time I glued glass beads from the Dollar Store directly to the mirror.
Why not do something different to my other blah bath...
My nasty boring other bathroom. As you can see I was living in a state of turmoil. Not enough space to store my items under the vanity so most everything stayed on the vanity or on the floor...Imagine a 4 door vanity to a 2 door.. it was awful...
I started by painting the walls from the boring blue that was existing. I didn't quite like the shade so I added more colors until I had a shade of blue I liked.


Once painted I wanted a little spark so I had some tubes of glitter translucent and blue from the dollar store so I just blew them on the wet paint. I loved the look but wanted something more and god knows I couldn't reach everywhere by blowing glitter out of my hand. I purchased Sargent Art Acrylic Glitter Glaze and rolled onto the walls.
Then one by one I started adding glass beads to the mirror. At $2 a bag you can't beat it. I used 5 bags picking out the ones I liked. I found that Lotite clear silicone worked great for me.


So starting in the corner at the bottom I went all the way across then went up row by row. I inserted some silver ribbon cord which I glued on.


The entire mirror took about 3 days. In between work and life..
I painted and primed the existing vanity and sprinkled glitter on top of wet paint. Once dry I applied 2 coats of polyurethane.
Same to the floor. Scrubbed, primed 1 coat. One coat of white latex paint. I sprinkled glitter on the still wet paint and let dry. Once dry I applied 2 coats of polyurethane.


Tip... sweep, sweep, sweep before painting and adding glitter. I can't tell you how many stray hairs I found from my furry children that no matter how much I scrubbed I missed. Which meant I had to pick them out with tweezers after the fact.
Old drawers from a old cabinet. Everything came from a thrift store. Washed and slapped on a coat of paint.


Everything has withstood a house full of people and my young visiting daughter home from college. Yay!!
Suggested materials:
  • Minwax Oil based polyurethane   (Home Depot)
  • Latex Paint   (Home Depot, Ace Hardware)
  • Glitter   (Dollar Store and Michaels)
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Frequently asked questions
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3 of 8 questions
  • Spencer Spencer on Jan 02, 2017
    How'd you adhere marbles to mirror?
  • Melinda Stone Graham Melinda Stone Graham on Jan 27, 2017
    what kind of paint did you use?
  • Dai18724568 Dai18724568 on Jan 28, 2017
    I have the smallest chip on the corner, so I would probably just want to but beads on the corners only. Also, the tiniest tiny crack in bathroom sink. Was thinking of making a circle of tiles.
Comments
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2 of 70 comments
  • Cheri Reichart Cheri Reichart on Feb 17, 2017
    Wow! I love it. The back splash and the cat! You have made me rethink what I am going to do in my kitchen. Thank you!
  • Sharron Christie Sharron Christie on Dec 20, 2019

    I spray painted a border around our bathroom mirror to cover areas where the silver was flaking. Looks good but the bead idea is even better to enhance it. A plus for me, the paint will be a perfect background for the glass beads. Thanks so much for sharing! (Loctite works really well.)

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