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HOW TO MAKE A SUNBURST MIRROR — FOR $6!

February 5, 2017 by crystelmont Leave a Comment

make-a-rustic-mirror-frame-3

Okay you guys, this is gonna blow your socks off so get ready! I was looking for something to do with all the wall space behind my bed and came across a few different ideas for making your own sunburst mirror on Pinterest. This is my own adaptation of what I found since I already had a lot of the stuff.

MATERIALS LIST: 

  • Small mirror with plastic frame
  • Spray paint of your color choice
  • 60 (or more depending on your mirror size) 12″ wooden dowels
  • Hot glue or E6000
  • cardboard
  • A pen
  • wire cutters
  • scissors
  • measuring tape or ruler

I went to the 99 cent Super store and found this lovely little mirror. img_0792I had some leftover 12″ wooden dowels from my cake decorating box so I grabbed those, some Rust-oleum metallic gold spray paint, a pen, a little bit of hot glue and some E6000 glue. Oh yeah, and some wire cutters to cut the dowels with. I didn’t end up having enough dowels for this project so I ran to Wal-mart into the craft section and picked up some 12″ wooden dowels that were just a teensy bit thinner for $1 per pack. I bought 4 packages that contained 16 dowels each. In total this project required 60 dowels for my size of mirror, which I think is about 6″ in diameter. Please note that that is not including the frame. The mirror itself is about 6″.

screen-shot-2017-02-02-at-1-51-07-amI thought I would need some tape to cover up my mirror when I painted it but turns out this particular mirror came out of the frame. So I just took off the back piece of cardboard holding the mirror and traced the shape onto another piece of cardboard, then cut it out.

screen-shot-2017-02-02-at-1-51-43-amI put the new cardboard cutout on the table and began placing my dowels.

screen-shot-2017-02-02-at-1-54-36-amI used 10 of the thicker ones first and kept them at full length. I spaced them all out evenly, but I didn’t glue them yet. I wanted to make sure I had enough dowels for what I wanted to do. I did see some tutorials that drew evenly spaced lines on the cardboard so that they would know exactly where to place the dowels. I wasn’t too particular with it so I just eyeballed everything and called it good. Also,  I definitely recommend placing them in at least an inch or more onto the cardboard so that when you glue them they’ll have something to grab onto. I had to move these ones in further in later because they were so wobbly.

screen-shot-2017-02-02-at-1-56-30-amAfter I had my big dowels placed I cut 20 of the smaller dowels down to 10″ and placed them on either side at a slight angle. Don’t worry about being meticulous with the placement just yet, later on you’ll have to arrange everything again anyway. I just wanted to get the general idea for what I would need.

screen-shot-2017-02-02-at-1-59-03-amNext I measured and cut 20 dowels down to 8″ and again, placed them on either side at a slight angle. screen-shot-2017-02-02-at-10-48-10-amShe’s starting to look good, eh??screen-shot-2017-02-02-at-10-48-28-amFinally, I had enough space for one more set of dowels. I wanted it to look less like a flower and a more like a sunburst, so instead of cutting the dowels down again to 6″ I decided to do another set of 10 dowels that were full length.

screen-shot-2017-02-02-at-10-49-20-amNext comes the tricky part… final placement! At this point you’ll want to be sure that your dowels are spaced evenly. I placed mine so they were touching at the bottom and about an inch or so apart from the next dowel at the top. I did have a little extra space at the bottom between dowels for my last set of full length dowels. **NOTE: (I also made sure the cut ends of the dowels were on the cardboard so I had the factory edge at the top. Just made it look a little nicer.)

All I did was grab my glue — I used E6000 for this part because I wanted a stronger hold but I’m sure it would be fine using hot glue also — and slap it on! I just went over the top around in a circle until I was confident that once it dried nothing was going to move.

screen-shot-2017-02-02-at-10-51-12-am

Once the glue was on, I placed the other piece of cardboard with the hook on it hook side up. Since I used E6000 glue, I let it sit overnight.

screen-shot-2017-02-02-at-10-52-22-am

And boy, was she sturdy the next morning.

screen-shot-2017-02-02-at-10-53-29-am

And now for the final steps! All I did next was spray paint the dowels and the frame and hot-glued the mirror and frame as close to center as I could!

img_0719

This is her final resting place:

img_0561Pretty, right?! I am seriously in love. But folks, the possibilities here are ENDLESS. You could make your own with popsicle sticks, paint sticks, or even long wood shims and make it looks AWESOME. I would LOVE to hear your feedback on if you made this mirror or any variations of this mirror!

Also, see those pretty nightstands? I made those! Check out how I did it here!

Also, please comment below if you have any other ideas or questions about it!

As always, XOXO

~Crystel

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Hey there! Welcome to my blog! I'm so happy to have you here, and I hope you'll find something that inspires you. Crystel Montenegro Home is a website that I started in an effort to show you that creating a beautiful, comfortable and functional home does not have to be an expensive or difficult ordeal, and that YOU. CAN. DO IT! Read More...

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