weekend/sunday project time

about two weeks ago there was an arts market where this guy from atlanta had these really amazing carved wood pieces of art. i ended up with a really awesome owl (see below) but once i hung it on my living room wall i realized it needed some company. 

i started brainstorming (read: pinterest stalking) and i came across a few ideas for mirrors surrounded by wood, which was the general idea i had to start. my initial thought was taking pallets, ripping the wood and making a basic, rustic, unfinished frame. that idea got scrapped when i saw these postings Wood Chevron Mirror and Shim Mirror.  when i saw these i knew that i had to do something similar. sooooo -- i fused the ideas together. off to the home improvement store. i bought 15" long cedar shims, minwax stain in jacobean, two 2x4' pressed boards, glass/mirror cutter, paintbrushes, and gloves. i thought originally to use an old mirror on the back of one of my bedroom doors as the mirror, but my mom argued that perhaps the mirror wasn't in good enough shape to be cut successfully. after the home improvement trip, i ended up at target where i got a beveled mirror for $15. note: all items for this project ended up costing about $60, which means each finished mirror is only $30. kind of amazing. 

here is how today went::::
first -- i forgot to take a picture of the process, but i took my mirror and cut it in half. i wanted two pieces 12" x 24" i copied from this pinterest posting Glass Cutter.

all shims were cut to 3" or 2 5/8" depending on whether they were horizontal pieces or vertical pieces (i did not realize some needed to be 2 5/8" until i cut them all 3". i had to go back and shave off the excess). 

my shims - ready for action

 

dad's trusty miter saw

after the pieces were cut, i laid them out to make sure all pieces were the correct lengths before i started staining 

when enough pieces were cut for two mirrors i got ready to stain! i highly advise gloves. we did this in the garage with a fan on HIGH and the door cracked because the fumes are very strong. 

use old towels you plan on throwing away afterward

when all pieces of the wood were stained they needed to dry out. i then set off to measure, mark and cut my wood backboard i plan to affix the mirror to. i ended up measuring the width as 13" and the length 25". that way i had 1/2" excess on all sides to help support the shims once glued to the glass and backboard. once the backboard was cut, i used gorilla glue to attach the mirror. then the pieces were clamped together for 2 hours

i allowed these to set up for a little longer than the 2 hours because i helped my mom do some cleaning around the house to make up for pirating her garage and dining room table :) after they were set i realized gorilla glue was a terrible choice to attach the shims because i did not want to fight with the expansion that happens with gorilla glue and i would be horrified if it squeezed onto the mirror and ruined my project. so, went to the small local hardware store and bought some goop! amazing stuff. i started gluing the shims. i alternated horizontal and vertical. the vertical ones were the 2 5/8" and the horizontal ones were 3". after they were glued, i let them sit. i'm going to leave them to cure overnight and then attach a hanging apparatus for my wall. 

here are the final results!

 

i really love how they turned out! i cannot wait to hang them on my wall :) these types of mirrors are incredibly expensive to buy. my project was less than $60. bam.