Another Window Turned Mirror Project + I Glazed Something?

Oh,you're still here? Phew. I've been so busy this week! I haven't had time to share a few projects that I've been working on. 

{Side Note: I finished up my photography course a few weeks ago and then signed up for a summer photography workshop. I absolutely love it. The teacher is awesome and I've met some way cool picture-taker friends. I've also been spending some time learning how to use my way-fancy new iphone. Are you surprised that I got it in white? Alex surprised me by bringing me to the mall for an upgrade on my old cellphone. He suggested I get it.... he must like having a tech-y wife. Hee hee!}

So anywayzzzz, the project I finished up yesterday was a bigger and better old-window-to-mirror project sorta like the one I posted about here.

I’m not sure if you remember but a few months ago I scored another old window from a friend of a friend of a friend. It was pretty big and kinda rickety but I looooooved it.

This is what it looked like:

I really liked the chippy paint on the top half of the window frame but if you were to look closer you woulda noticed that it was only chippy on the top half. The bottom was raw, feathery wood. 

On my recent trip to Muskoka Living Interiors (where people like me only window shop) I saw a 6-paned window/mirror for $450. Cha-ching! It  inspired me to get going on my own waaaay cheaper version for our front entry.

Here's the proof in case you didn't believe me:

I decided to try and copy the little-bit-more-polished-look of the window/mirror from the fancy, expensive shop. I'll kind of explain what I did but I'm not calling this a tutorial since I'm missing pictures of various steps. Whoopsie! Summertime A.D.D. I guess. Also, many of the steps I explained in detail here.

So,here we go. First I sanded the window all over to get the peeling paint chips off. I think I used 150 grit sandpaper. Not for any good reason just ‘cause it’s all we had left at the time. The panes of glass were already removed but I did have to chip out some dried putty from the back of the frame. I just used a butter knife to scrape it off.

Once the window frame was sanded, I primed the front and back with Benjamin Moore’s Fresh Start Primer. I followed up with one coat of Benjamin Moore’s Cloud White in an Eggshell finish. I decided to use only one coat since I’d be sanding lots of the paint off anyway.

After the window was freshly painted and dry, I sanded and distressed the living daylights out of it. I used an electric sander for the flat bits and I did the skinny parts by hand. It was dusty. I wore a mask.

Now for the fun part. I decided to get all fancy-like and try glazing for the first time. Ooooooh ahhhhh. First I did some research and read a few posts from some glazing-expert-bloggers. I read these three posts:

Amazin' Glazin' over at Bower Power

Glazing Tutorial over at Miss Mustard Seed

How I Glaze Furniture over at Show and Tell

We hit up Home Depot to pick up some supplies. I bought a quart of Behr’s Faux Glaze and bought a sample jar of paint (Behr's Expresso Beans)(kind of a chocolate brown colour) to tint it.

I also rounded up a plastic cup, a wooden skewer (???), a paintbrush, a bowl of water, and a roll of paper towels. I mixed the glaze and paint with a ratio of about 3:1. Who knows for sure though 'cause really I just eyeballed it.

What I found worked best was to paint on the glaze mixture, let it sit for about a minute, and then wipe it off with a dry paper towel. If I thought there was too much glaze I would wet a paper towel with a drop or two of water to get a little bit more off. 

If you work like me then you'll probably use a lot of paper towels.

What I really liked about adding the glazing step was that it filled in all the dings and dents to make it look like an old window again. I kind of liked it. I think I might do it again sometime. 

Back to the story. To give the window a bit of a store-bought, polished look I sprayed the whole thing with two coats of Varathane spray in a satin finish to seal it all up. I always mean to do this when I paint furniture but I never get around to it. I finally did this time. High five!

Now, about the rickety window frame. Before we added the mirrors we decided to take the whole window frame apart and put it back together with wood glue and clamp-y things. We did this because the wood was really old and we wanted it to be sturdy enough to hold 12 mirrors. So once we put wood glue in all the nooks and crannies we clamped the whole thing together for a few hours to make sure it was really solid.

When the glue was dry we laid all the mirrors in, face down, from the back.  

Last time we used little window clips to secure the mirrors but in this case, we would've needed to hammer in about 50 clips. So we decided to use silicone instead. Much faster.

We just applied a bead of silicone around the back edge of each mirror to secure each mirror pane to the window frame. We let the silicone dry for a few hours before we brought the mirror in to admire it.

 

We finished this project last night and didn't have a chance to hang it up yet since we left early this morning for another ROAD TRIP! Woo woo! (Chillin' in the hotel room right now while Alex takes a snooze. More details about this trip to come later.) Sooooo, you'll have to come back in a few days (will you? please?) to see how the mirror looks hung up in our front entry.

{Update: You can see the mirror all hung up and looking cute here.}

P.S. Getting the 12 panes of mirror custom cut cost about $80. All the other supplies we already had or were bought and will be used again for future projects.

P.S.S. The fonts and spacing might be all messed up but let's blame it on bad hotel room internet connections and not my blogging skills, k?

Store-Bought Window Mirror: $450

DIY Window Mirror: $80

iPhones: Awesomeness

Ooops. How did that last bit get in there? Are you still here even though this is the longest post of all time? You are!?!?!?!? You're my favourite. Okaybye.

Linking To These Cool Places: Nifty Thrifty Tuesday @ Coastal Charm, Good Life Wednesday @ A Beach Cottage, White Wednesday @ Faded Charm, Transformation Thursday @ The Shabby Chic Cottage, Show and Tell Friday @ My Romantic Home, Feature Yourself Friday @ Fingerprints On The Fridge, Frugal Friday @ The Shabby Nest, DIY Project Parade @ The DIY Show-Off, VIP Party @ Designer Cottage, Saturday Nite Special @ Funky Junk Interiors