I wanted to make some extra money so I decided to give it a go at renovating furniture.  My very supportive hubby has a lot of confidence in me so much that he found my first project. 

 

We were browsing around at Goodwill and he found a big wood mirror with some character.  He looked it over and realized it was good quality mirror and at $9.95 quite a steal.  I’ll be honest though I hesitated to buy it.  My confidence isn’t very good about what I can accomplish and I didn’t want to gamble $10 on whether I could give it a new life.  I bought my other items and we headed to the car.  That’s where my loving husband got frustrated in my lack of confidence.  So I gave in and he went in and bought the mirror.

 
My first instinct was to re-stain it to give it that craftsmen look.  After looking it over more though I came to the conclusion that wasn’t going to work so I decided to paint it.  I started the process by sanding the mirror I did some by hand and some using a powered hand sander.  I knew I just needed to get the finish off of it to get the paint to stick.  The mirror had a couple of screws in the back and old hanging hardware on it which I removed and filled the holes.  I did all the sanding outside because it can get quite messy and since we live in the country I already have enough of that in the house.  Once the sanding was done I brought it into my craft room to paint.
 
Next I had to decide on a color.  This might be surprising but that’s the most difficult part for me because I’m so indecisive.  I debated between painting it a single or double color.  I ended up deciding on single color because I like the look of the wood coming through the color and it was less money with only one color to purchase.  Before going to the store I did decide I wanted to paint it something off white.  We jumped in the car and headed to Lowe’s. 

 

I always love saving any penny when I can so I figured out that I wouldn’t need much paint and knew I could get away with just buying a sample container.  I looked through the off white colors and found one that I liked and the name caught my eye, statuesque. 
 
Since the piece I was painting was basically trim work I bought a trim/touch up pad.  I also used a thin painting brush and crafters sponge brush for some of the nooks and corners.  Before I started painting I took a semi-damp rag and wiped it down to get off any dust and fibers.  Then the fun began of painting it and seeing if I could accomplish my goal. 

 

I made sure to let it dry in between each coat and since I have a toddler that was at least 24 hours.  I did a lot of the work while my honey was at work so I was only able to paint during nap times.  Chores went out the window for a bit. 
 
I ended up doing three coats of paint on the front and two coats on the back.  Once it was all nice and dry and not tacky I knew it was time to do some distressing.  I started sanding by hand around the edges where it would be handled and then I did some more on the detail work.  I was nervous about doing too much sanding I didn’t want to go overboard. 

 

I thought I was done but when my hubby looked it over he gave me some constructive criticism.  His thoughts were that I didn’t do enough distressing and that it just looked like I missed some spots when I painted it.  I agreed with him it was just that I was nervous with this being my first time.  I went back to sanding and finished it up.  I was extremely happy with the results and I proved to be my worst critic, however I realized I could do it.  I put it up for sale and happened to sell it to a co-worker.  Now I can’t wait to start my next project.