DIY Mirror Frame with Gold Contact Wallpaper

Hello everyone!

I would like to share with you my latest DIY project.

Yesterday the dressing table/chest of drawers situation in our bedroom had reached the point where it almost got covered in gold foil contact wallpaper. The only thing stopping me from doing that was that the drawer pulls are pegged and glued in and can't screw out otherwise that sucker would be a shining pile of treasure right now:)
Since I couldn't do that, I decided to frame the mirror instead. We inherited the mirror when we moved in. It was going to be thrown out as it was quite damaged and very nasty, but mirrors be expensive and a yucky mirror is better than no mirror :-) It cleaned up well but the raw glass edges were always a concern to me. If that mirror decided to fall you wouldn't be inclined to reach out to stop it.

We bought 4 rolls of this contact paper a couple of years ago with the thought to put it on the lounge side of a kitchen island- a project that was never finished and was unnecessary since we moved.

This stuff is a heavy duty self adhesive wallpaper. The brand is Patifix and it is made in Holland. You can have a look at their website here . We bought it at a local hardware store.

So armed with my roll of adhesive foil, I gathered my tools and set to work.

• First I cleaned the mirror to make sure there was no dust or dirt on that would stop the contact paper from sticking.
  Then I measured the length of the mirror and cut a piece off the roll. This piece was then cut into 3 strips of 15 cm. I made them quite broad to make sure it would stick properly to the front and the back of the mirror panel. One of the strips was cut in half and would serve to cover the shorter sides of the mirror.

• Next, I measured out 5cm from the edge of the mirror and marked it with a dry erase marker.
  I stuck down the strips a bit at a time, lining up the front with my 5cm markers as I went along, peeling the backing strip a bit at a time. Peeling the back off all at once makes it stick to everything and then it picks up dust which makes bubbles under the finish. I pulled the back down as tight as I could in order to avoid bubbling along the edge.

• When it came to the corners I found a straight line between the edge where the paper meets up and the point of the mirror. I then cut this edge using a craft knife/carpet knife/ exacto knife which made a prefect 45 degree angle and made it look like a professionally framed mirror.

( My phone cover got an upgrade with an offcut piece :)

Before:
One uninspiring dressing table situation. The edges are so chipped and nasty.

After

Much better. The mirror fits better in the space and now it just looks like I haven't gotten around to hanging it instead of it looking like something that had been through the wars.
I also finally put in a hook for my hairdryer to hang instead of having it piled up into the basket.

I hope this inspired you to try something new in your own space.

Have a great day!
Lizelle

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If you'd like to see what else I get up to on a daily basis, have a look at some of my other posts:

Teddy Today: Exploring the Magnetic Pad.

Pet collar safety warning!

Harvest