DIY: New/Old Gilt Mirror

My grandparents are cleaning out their basement. When they sent the media cabinet home, they also sent a bunch of odds and ends with us. One of the items is an old gilt mirror they had hanging in their entryway back when they lived in their old house. It's been living in their basement for about 15 years now.

It was dirty and yucky and dated, so I decided to paint it a fun color. I thought about white, but I was planning to hang it on a white wall and we are not all about the white. I showed Mister a pic from Life in the Fun Lane (one of my favorite reads and a major inspiration for me) and he said he couldn't understand why anyone would want their house all white. So color it is! 

I decided on Krylon Blue Ocean Breeze in Gloss because I thought it would coordinate well with the "Wild Aster" walls in the LR and the "Pale moon" walls in the DR, since it is visible from both. 

I set up all of my supplies and got to work.

I started by taping the whole thing off, which is a step I feel now I could have skipped. When I pulled off the tape after I was done, a small chunk of paint came off. I resprayed that part and used a razor blade to scrape the paint off the mirror face and it worked like a charm, so now I know for next time. No need to waste all that time, paper, and tape. 

After a few coats of the Krylon, it was apparent that a few spots were not going to cooperate. Luckily I had some water-based Kilz which was slightly dried out due to a bad seal on the lid. The goopiness of the primer helped me to keep it just where I needed it and also allowed me to fill in some cracks in the frame.

Here is the finished project! It took me longer than I expected to finish, but everything does. You'd think I would factor that in by now. I would like to find a narrow dresser, commode, or console table to place under it. The hallway is wide enough for something to stick out about 22" and the space is 34" wide. 

As you can see (behind Gidget's tush), we still have to anchor the bookcase to that wall, also.