Monday, May 13, 2013

DIY - Mirrored Starburst


So now that I have a few projects under my belt: couch table, blanket ladder, Eat in pennies, etc. I thought it was a good time to branch my DIY skills into more decorating for the house.  Well during all my previous walks through Pinterest I came across a ton of ideas to do in the future.  For some reason this one really struck a cord with me.  I mean come on who wouldn’t love a starburst mirror hanging in their house?!? So I studied Tamara’s post of her mirror over at the The Jolly James for a few days, did some research and made the decision that I too could make one.

I went to my 2 favorite stores as of lately Home Depot and Jo-Ann’s to get everything I needed.  I followed Tamara’s instructions almost to a T but swayed a bit when it came to a few things.  On the The Jolly James post she uses rods from Jo-Ann’s and hot glue.  I made the executive decision to use the famous E-6000 Quick Hold glue and I got my rods from Home Depot instead of the pre-packaged ones.  After some research I found getting them from Home Depot was my cheapest bet.  The nice thing about getting the pre-packaged ones is that they are already cut at 12” for you, the Home Depot ones are at 48”.  So I batted my eyelashes and nicely asked the gentlemen in the orange apron to cut each rod to 12” so now 1 rod turns into 4.  Now it wasn’t just 4 rods it was 20 and he gladly did it but needed to know what I was making to need 80 rods!!!  The rods were about 87¢ each so at 20 I am knocking on the door of a $20+ mirror…I hope it is worth it!!! I also picked up a can of matte silver spray paint while I was at Home Depot.  I got a 9” round mirror from Jo-Ann’s.  


This is when I followed The Jolly James instructions to that T.  I did measure out every 1/8” to know where to lay the rods and it was fairly simple drawing the lines, but placing those rods was an annoying task.  Since my mirror was 9” I probably should of measured out every 1/9” but didn’t think of that until after the lines were drawn and I started placing rods.  Staggering them and placing them evenly over the mirror was a challenge for me.  Luckily I embrace my challenges such as not being able to draw a straight line with a ruler that I was able to not harp on this imperfection for to long.  I figured it was me that was making this and not a machine and something to the fact that asymmetrical stuff is still considered art so…whatever.


Gluing the rods on was a pain in my ass because the rods liked to roll.  Who would have thunk that rods like to roll. I let the rods sit awhile to make sure they were nice and stuck on the back of the mirror.


I covered the mirror part up before I sprayed which was fun…not.  


I used spray paint to cover up the rods and it took a lot of applications to get the color I wanted.  So a mental note when I do this project again…use a primer first.  Instead of using a picture hanging “thing”, I reverted back to my favorite Command Strips.  I placed 4 on the back to make sure I had a strong hold.


Now where to hang it…I do not have a lot of pictures or "hung" things in the upstairs so I knew it could fit somewhere up there.  We had just moved a 3-legged table to the top of the stairs when we shuffled the living around and it was looking a little bare.  So the mirror found a new home. 

I like this project but I know it could have turned out better.  Luckily I have about 30 extra rods so I might make another one.  Just to see if I can make it better… What do you think? 


During my search I saw this one and this one so I might try one of these instead. Which one do you like best?

Thanks again to Tamara at The Jolly James for the wonderful idea.




Andi

1 comment :

  1. Definitely the second "this one". Love the little mirrors.

    ReplyDelete