DIY French Vintage Mirror from Old Thrifted Picture Frames

Sometimes I come up with great ideas, and sometimes I am inspired by super creative people. Today, I have been inspired by a great blogging friend of mine. And she inspired me to create these DIY french vintage mirror sets from old thrifted picture frames.

My friend, Jamie Lundstrom, from the blog So Much Better With Age, recently came out with a new decor book and I could not wait to get my hands on it and try out some of her projects.  

“French Vintage Decor” is the name of her new book and it is such a beautiful book full of inspiring decor and DIY ideas!  I really wanted to recreate every single project, but alas, I could not.  So I decided I wanted to make something really sweet for my daughters bedroom.

My daughters bedroom has a touch of vintage french farmhouse flare.  With her gold metal bed and her flowing sheer bed curtains, it is a dreamy place to be sure.  Years ago I found a vintage glass light with rose colored glass and knew it would look perfect in a little girls room.  It was the piece that inspired the rest of the rooms decor.

While looking through Jamie’s new book, I found some french antique mirrors that would look amazing in her bedroom.  And to make it even better, they were made with old picture frames.  I was thrilled, because I already had a stockpile of thrift store frames that I had been collecting.  

I found her instructions super helpful and I was easily able to complete this project. 

In fact, I most everything already and only had to grab some more spray paint.

Now, I don’t want to give away the whole DIY process, because, if you are truly interested, I would rather you hope over to Amazon and get a copy of her book so that you can have your own copy.

How I made my vintage mirror set:

Here are a few images of the process I took to create my own French antique mirror set.

I started with this set of green picture frames I have been storing for quite some time.  I wanted to create a small set and thought these would be perfect.

I took the glass out of the frames and used mirror effect spray paint on one side of the glass, leaving some light spots.  I then sprayed the other side of the glass with matt black spray paint.  This gave the antique mirror effect some depth.  I then added a bit of black to the top of the glass with a stippling paint brush, just to give it a bit more texture.

Here are a few of the paints I used since I did not have all the exact colors that are in the book, but I was able to make it work.  I used copper, dark brown and a light green paint.  I also had a dark metallic craft paint I also used to give it more depth since my frames were really bright to begin with.

I used this stippling paint brush to create the mottled vintage mirror frame. 

I alternated between the colors, creating depth and texture on the picture frames.

I then installed the glass pieces and connected them all with a piece of dropcloth.  I love using dropcloth and loved the combination of the antique mirror look with some raw fabric.

The process was quite easy and straightforward and I found myself done with this project in no time!

I hung this vintage mirror set in my daughters room.  I think they helped to create a beautiful vignette in her room along with the vintage glass light and her very own blessing dress.  Sentimental and pretty.  I love it when you can combine those two.

 

 

I am absolutely thrilled with how these antique mirrors turned out!  I cant believe I used ugly old green picture frames to make them!  

Its been a while since I worked on a project like this and it was so nice to get back to some of the things I love to do.  

You really should go get Jamie’s book!  It has given me new creative life!  There are so many other projects in her book that I will be making soon!

You will not be sorry!

I would love it if you would share this with your friends!