I purchased this mirror while we lived in Massachusetts. It lived in the girls room while they were younger. Once we moved to Alabama, it didn't fit with either décor. I moved it into my room and pondered about refinishing it.
At the top of the frame was a resin 3 dimensional geranium. I asked Mr. Thrifty to take it off but he was busy.
I pulled out a putty knife and a hammer and took a whack at the resin piece. It instantly came off. Now, that was easy.
To my surprise, it was beautiful maple and not mdf board which I was expecting.
Then I took the legs off and continued stripping and cleaning the wood frame.
After a tedious 4 days of sanding, the piece was ready for paint. At this point, I decided instead of painting to stain the piece with a driftwood stain. I researched stain on line and ordered DIY driftwood stain. It came in packets. One packet mixed with one cup of water was enough to stain this piece 3 times. I hoped to get a darker color with the added coats of stain.
This next picture shows the second coat of stain. The directions suggest if at all possible to dry in the sun because it will give you a darker color. I let it dry overnight.
In the meantime, I took an ornament that my friend Tara had given me and pulled the wooden piece off. I wanted to glue this to a part of the frame.
I sanded the piece and was very happy with the color of the wood.
I stained this piece with another coat of the driftwood. It did darken the piece considerably.
I used wood glue to attach the ornamental piece onto the connecting wood at the bottom.
Then using white wax, I gave it a coat. The white wax lay in the crevices nicely. I buffed the entire frame.
I placed the mirror in front of the bedroom door to show how well the pediment color matched the mirror frame.
I really like this finish. It reminds me of an old European finish that you see on antique furniture. I'll be using the driftwood stain again.
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