ɐ ןooʞ ɐʇ ןıɟǝ ɟɹoɯ ɐ pıɟɟǝɹǝuʇ ɐuƃןǝ: DIY

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?