Urban Renewal: Here Comes the Sun

I have always really liked sunburst mirrors but have never really liked their price tags. I was also too scared to buy one in case my house couldn’t pull it off, kind of like how I don’t think I could pull off a look like harem pants.

I recently was turned on to Pinterest, which has a plethora of ideas and things on the internet that you can keep track of by creating a virtual pin board. I saw that someone had made a sunburst mirror and I really liked the look of it. Upon further review, I saw that it was made from shims. If you would have asked me what shims were a year ago, I probably would have corrected you and asked if you meant shins, the body part. However, since we have been giving our home the makeover of its life, I have come across shims a couple times. They are thin pieces of wood that are used to stabilize door frames or dishwashers (which is what we used them for).

I decided to tackle the project since I knew that shims were not expensive. This way, if I hated the mirror or my house couldn’t pull it off, then I wouldn't feel guilty for not hanging it up.

Supplies:

• Wreath forms made from MDF — You can get these at a craft store like Michael's. I got the three sizes they had in stock: 6-inch, 12-inch and 18-inch.
• Shims — Buy these at a hardware store. They are kept in the lumber area.
• Round mirror — I used a 10-inch mirror but kind of wish I had a bigger one (this one was left over from when I was playing around with wedding centerpieces).
• Very strong glue — I used Gorilla Wood Glue since it was what we had on hand and was a really good choice. I am not sure if hot glue would have held up as well.

I was inspired by the mirror that I found at the blog 26 to Life. I ended up using the two smaller rings because I wanted to avoid a monstrosity.

I began attaching the shims in a clock pattern so they would be even and filled in the gaps. While I waited for my work to dry, I wanted to make sure the mirror part was attaching to the shims, so I searched the house for the heaviest book I could find. The winner was my tax textbook from graduate school. I remembered it being a lot heavier though when I was in school, so I put a weight on it just in case.

Now I have an awesome mirror for our guest room that I really love and it looks so much more expensive than it was. Even HB loves it. He says it looks awesome and that it reminds him of a sunflower, which I love since they remind me of Kansas.

Follow our journey at Urban Renewal.