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Hey there!
I have a confession to make...A few years ago I wanted a particular mirror from Anthropology—nah,
I coveted this $700 mirror
from Anthropology that everyone I loved on instagram and pinterest seemed to be able to afford. You know the one I'm talking about. I don’t know about you, but I didn’t then and I don’t yet have a decorating budget that would allow for a $700 mirror (to be completely honest, for a long time I didn’t really have a budget for anything. I just kind of assumed I didn’t have money and then I held my breath while I bought something and hoped my card wouldn't get rejected… but that’s another blog post for another time. Right now we are talking about my lust for expensive gold mirrors…).
But as lusting after something can get exhausting and isn’t really productive,
I put on my rose colored glasses and came up with a plan….
I would make my own Anthropologie-like mirror! First I looked around my house and took stock of what I had. Now my bets are pretty high that you won’t have what I had unless you and your husband also run a cosplay business out of your garage that sells EVA foam and foam clay. But that’s what I had lying around and that’s what I decided to use (you can buy EVA foam and our foam clay on Amazon to create your own golden mirror-of-wonder! If youwant a bigger mirror than the size of foam we sell I would reccomend this company)
Next, I headed to my local thrift store and searched for a mirror to
use. I found two and while removing the existing frames, I broke one. Oops! Luckily the one that I really liked stayed intact. It was not an arched mirror like the one I loved, but it had a similar enough shape that I was able to make it look arched. Pretty crafty, eh?
Also, I want to tell you that mirrors are something I look for every time I go thrifting, especially gold mirrors because I’m a sucker for them, if you can’t tell. Ok, ok, ok, back to work…
So I removed the frame, carefully this time. And used the back plate thing made of particleboard as
a template. I traced it onto my foam sheet (we call our product ‘What the Foam’ because my husband and I think we’re hilarious) and then I began to draw out my rough design. I created three pieces:
a front open piece,
a thin middle piece (that gave the mirror space to sit against) and a full back to enclose the mirror. We glued all these pieces together around the edges with contact cement--leaving an opening on the bottom for the mirror to slide into. We tested the mirror in it but then removed it for the sculpting and painting process. It was a really snug fit, but once the mirror was in it was pretty secure and won't be falling out any time soon.
Then we made a template for the feet and traced it out on our “What the Foam” four times using two pieces
per foot--we glued two pieces together with contact cement. The template made it so the feet would slide onto the foam from the side. And voilà! Feet were made!
Contact cement is not good to breathe so we wore respirators. Now that the base was made, I began sculpting with Foam-Mo (our foam clay that is also available on Amazon) to get the Anthro feeling. I didn’t copy it fully, but it was a starting point that led me to my own design.
This is where you could really get creative and make a one-of-a-kind masterpiece.
If you aren’t wanting to make a whole frame like I did, then maybe thrift or find a mirror that you like the shape and size of and use the current frame as a base. Make sure to sand or score the edges of your frame so that the foam clay (or you could use paper clay) has something to grip onto.
After I sculpted it, I ignored it for months (I don’t suggest this as the foam clay does better when it’s plasti-dipped 24 to 48 hours after it’s sculpted.) Then, when I felt good and ready and the weather warmed up, I plasti-dipped it (which is like coating it in rubber-ish-ness) and then I spray painted it with Rustoleum Gold. It was super shiney so I took some acrylic paint—brown, black, and a golden rod yellow color—and mixed them all up. It was a very ugly color but did the job perfectly. I just wanted to dull down the gold and antique the mirror a bit. I brushed on the paint and then wiped it back off again with a rag that I didn’t care about. Then I was ready to slide in that mirror that waited months and months to feel pretty. It was worth it!
Bam! I coveted a $700 mirror no longer!
So…. are you going to make one? How will you go about it? Tell me about it by leaving a comment below! Thanks for reading and I hope this inspired you to make something beautiful!
Love,
Olivia
