So this is possibly the simplest project ever, but it's my first thread here, and so I'm keeping it easy. I inherited these little roundish mirrors from somewhere (Grandpa, Dad, who knows) and they've been sitting under my bed and in various locations in my room since I was, like, 10. Now that I'm back on summer break from college, I've been cleaning, and stumbled across them. They were ugly, old, masonite things, very cheap.
Here's the finished project:
Since this is totally easy and I suspect most of you could do this way better than I ever could and in half the time, this is only a mock tutorial so you can giggle at my mistakes
1. Inherit old junk. This is the easy step. My mirrors were very cheap, with clunky masonite edging that was badly cut (I rulered the edges, and they were definitely not straight when they were supposed to be on the one that involved straight edges...) The backs were set on badly with cheap glue and paper hook thingies.
2. Decide what you want to do with said old junk. I got it into my head that I wanted a retro checkerboard pattern, so I got my paint supplies, a ruler, and a pencil, and went at it. I measured out every single 7/8" square and rulered them straight.
This was the point where my Dad came in and said that it would be
so much easier if I just used painter's tape instead of trying to paint with in the lines. I promptly felt like an idiot.
3. Paint over your hard-earned gridlines and nearly cry at the wasted effort.
4. Curse your cheap acylic paint and apply two more coats.
5. Put on painter's tape. Since the tape itself was 1" wide, I just measured an inch between strips. MORE MEASURING, YAY. Get angry every time the tape doesn't stick well, even though that's the point of painter's tape.
6. Find a really sharp object. Preferably an exacto knife, but I suppose anything would do. Try not to cut your fingers off. Cut out all of the little squares where the tape intersects itself, careful to use straight lines. Mutter under your breath every time you go off-track.
7. Rinse and repeat.
8.
Go to sleep. Keep working.
9. Paint in the checkerboards. If you have a stencil brush, use it. I didn't. Yay. Try not to get paint under the tape. You will inevitably fail.
10. Take off the tape! This is the pseudo-exciting part. You get to see where it worked and... where it didn't.
11. Clean up the edges on the spots where it didn't. Wipe the paint off of the mirror glass. Paint the edges. Generally patch over all the parts you screwed up earlier.
12. Hang. Enjoy! Oooh and Aaah.
