DIY Starburst Mirror

In honor of our weekly theme, "hardware store", over at The CSI Project.....I decided to fashion a starburst mirror out of paint sticks. Did you know they will happily give you a bag full of them if you ask??? I went in prepared to pay for them, but they were so nice and happy to help me out. I proceeded to skip out the front door, smiling all the way to my car! I could hardly wait to get started.

First, I lined them all up outside and gave them a coat of black spray paint. Then I painstakingly silver leafed each and every one of those blasted sticks. It was not as easy as they make it look. I googled and you tubed and read all the tutorials....I thought I was soooooooo prepared. HA! That stuff is tricky. These are the first few I did. I wanted them a bit distressed, but not quite this much. I eventually got the hang of it.....thankfully. I decided to use silver leaf because I like the look it gives. I was going for a faux antiqued mirrored look. But, really I think you could achieve something similar with spray paint.




As you can see, I am not a patient woman. Instead of cutting the sticks like a normal person would do, I decided to just go ahead and break them with my man hands. Seriously. Then I used hot glue to attach the sticks to the back of the mirror. I used an epoxy, E-6000, to attach the hanger.





The mirror is actually a candle mirror from the craft store. They were half off last week, so this whole project cost me $3.50. The paint sticks were free and the silver leaf sheets and spray paint I already had on hand. I LOVE a really cool, really cheap DIY project!





I really like the way it brightens up this space. Now I need to work on recovering the lampshades that blend right into the walls. And the shutters definitely need some sanding and a bit of glaze to tone them down. As soon as I start one project...I always find at least 10 more mini projects within that project that need attention too! My list is never ending. But actually I like it that way. I would be lost without my LIST of things to do.......and really BORED!