Guest Room Project- Take 2

After making my first sunburst mirror a while back, Ive been thinking of ways to modify the mirror I created previously. I just found there were a few things I could have done better, plus I wanted to make another one that I could use for our guest room (once we begin to decorate it).

So here is what I started with:

- approx 24 small wood dowlings (2 different widths)

- acrylic paint (I used 3 different colours)

- saw (to cut dowlings)

- glue (glue gun worked well for me)

- wood filler

- embroidery ring

- 1 craft ring (you only need the smaller one)

Step 1: Paint your dowlings. I used 3 paint colours: gold, silver and a pearl white. I mixed different ratios of the paint colours to get a variety of different colours.

Step 2: Arrange your dowlings onto the craft rings to see how you want your mirror to look (I tried to space out the dowlings well according to colour and width).

Step 3: Glue your dowlings to the craft ring and then place the mirror on top. Glue your mirror onto the dowlings.

Step 4: Pull the metal pieces off your embroidery ring. This left holes in mine, so I had to fill them with wood filler. Once the filler was dry, I sanded it and painted the embriodery ring.

Step 5: Once the paint is dry, glue your embroidery ring around the mirror. This should be your last step!

The hardest part of this project was figuring out how long I wanted to wood dowlings to be. In my last sunburst I didn't like the ratio of wooden shims with the size of my mirror (I found the mirror to be a bit small/ shims to be a bit long), however I didn't have anything to cut the shims with.

This time, I was able to use a handsaw to cut the dowlings, since they are much smaller than the shims. Regardless, I spent hours cutting them, since I couldn't decide on a length and had to keep re-cutting them, which took forever.

And here is my finished project (still drying):

Im actually really happy with how this one turned out :)

Next time you see it, it'll be hanging on the wall in our guest room!

Sunburst Mirror

So earlier this week I gave you all a preview on what I was working on.

I am so excited to show you the final product :)

There was so much inspiration out there, to help me with this project. I was originally inspired by the design world and the abundance of sunburst mirrors out there, that I knew I wanted to make one. I was also inspired by fellow bloggers and even a photo I had of a gorgeous sunset.

Here were some of my blogger inspirations:

Layla from The Lettered Cottage and her outdoor suburst:

JandJ Home and their version:

Addicted to Decorating and their creation:

and Kate (aka) Centsational Girl and her gorgeous mirror:

So that is what I started with. I took suggestions from all of these fabulous bloggers and created my own version.

Here is how is started:

I got my supplies together:
1. Round mirror (7 inches)
2. Wood craft embroidery ring (7 inches)
3. 2 floral arrangement rings (12 inch and 8 inch)
4. Hot glue gun
5. Wood filler
6. Gorilla Glue
7. Paint (to be used on my future sunburst mirror....)
8. Fast drying polyurethane (not pictured)

AND

9. 3 Packs of wooden shims (purchased from Lowes):

Step 1:
Took my Wood craft embroidery ring and pulled the metal attachement piece off of it, glued the ends together and filled the small holes that left, with wood filler. Challenge with this, I was anticipating painting my shims, until I decided to do that for another project, so now I have wood filler that I cannot cover up, on my ring. So basically I just have to make sure that part is facing down and no one will notice:

Step 2: Lay out your Floral rings and begin playing around with how you want the shims to be placed:

I used the small holes in the rings as a guideline, and placed 4 shims down first, and then went from there.

Then you can start to lay down more shims and glue as you go. A few people suggested gorilla glue, but I didn't have the patience for it, and used the glue gun instead. Just make sure you have your pieces in the right spots, since the glue gun glue dries very quickly.

Once I had the first row done, I started to work on adding layers to hide the floral rings:

Once I had everything layed down and glued, I let it dry overnight:

The next day I bought some polyurethane, (the fast drying kind that dries clear), and went over each piece with it.

In the second picture you can start to see that some pieces are much darker in colour (the wood has been brought to life) and it really helps to highlight the colour of the wood.

In some of the other mirrors I posted, some bloggers painted the wood, some left it as it...I think its really a personal preference. For my next mirror, I think Im going to paint it to get a different look, but I love how this one turned out.

Then I glued the mirror to the base, and glued my wood craft embroidery ring, around the mirror (wood filler side at the bottom)so when I hang the mirror, you wont be able to see the wood filler.

And here it is!

I love it! Its going to go in our guest room, so I'll post a pic when that room is finished and the mirror is hung.