Mirror, mirror on the floor...

I originally bought this enormous, heavy mirror 11 or 12 years ago. I used it in a bedroom in my previous house.

When I moved to my current home 5 years ago, it was placed in the basement and never moved out of there. My style has changed a bit since then.

A year or so ago, my daughter began asking me for a vanity for her bedroom, and so I began my search. I found several at antique stores that I thought we could make-over but, my daughter, unlike her mother, does not appreciate antiques. {I would wonder if there may have been a mix-up at birth but considering the hair....we all know that is not the case.} Anyhoo...she starting showing me the ones that she liked at PB Teen.

And there was no way I was shelling out $1000+ for a vanity. Did you guys know that's how much these things are?? not. happ'nen.

And really, what she prefers to do is to sit in the sink in the bathroom and put her make-up on {I did the same thing as a teenager--did you guys do that, too??}

Then I remembered Mr. Mirror and I thought 'Why can't we simply prop it in her room and she could sit on the floor in front of it? I could get her tail out of the sink and she would have a full-length mirror that she could actually see all 5'10" of herself {with even the additional ~~half a foot~~ inches to see all of her hair!} It seemed like a win-win to me. To her however...it wasn't exactly what she wanted BUT I figured it would make her 50% happy, perhaps. Which, with a teenager, is considered a major win in my book. And so we drug Mr. Mirror out to my paint shop:

by the creek. and the tree. the one with the fantastic ventilation.

The mirror had lots of silver leafing and I knew that I needed to get as much of the flaky stuff off.

I used a wire brush get in all of the grooves. It worked really well. Then I wiped it down with a damp cloth and began taping off the mirror with old bags, newspaper {whatever i could find} and frog tape.

I like to use gray primer when I am covering up an original dark base color or when the new paint color is anything other than white.

I used 2 cans of primer because there were lots of grooves to get in to. Then I used super fine sandpaper to go over the whole thing and then wiped it down again with a damp rag. Then I used Krylon's Watermelon Gloss indoor/Outdoor spray paint.

A lot of it. Like 4 cans. {maybe 5--I don't remember} Here it is in its new digs.

{I took these a couple of weeks ago when it was decorated for Christmas-obviously} If she wants, we can look for an expensive simple table/desk to sit in front of the mirror. So far, this is working out OK.