Sunday, May 15, 2011

Mirror, Mirror on the Wall

Like most houses built in the 1990s, our bathrooms all have (insert sarcastic tone) super fabulous glued to the wall mirrors.  This is a picture of our half bath that I took the day I first looked at the house.


I've been super busy at work lately.  I had to go in this morning for a few hours.  Before I left I rattled off a list of "possible activities" for Eric while I was gone.  One of those "possible activities" included removing the mirror off of the wall.  I didn't really think he would do it, but just in case, my parting instruction was that if he started on the mirror, don't forget to take pictures for the blog!  He's such a good husband!

He googled other DIYs and got plenty of ideas.  He started by covering the entire mirror with contact paper that he bought on clearance at the grocery store.


Eric then loosened all of the edges with a putty knife.  He worked around the edges trying to loosen the whole mirror, but it wouldn't budge. 

When that didn't work, he got creative and tried to heat the glue with my hair dryer and then used a piece of picture hanging wire to slice/floss it off the wall.  No such luck.  The wire actually dried into the glue and wouldn't come out.  He then actually slammed it with a mallet...and it didn't even break.  He then slowly worked the screwdriver around the mirror, and it eventually popped off the wall.



And, the backside of the mirror... with the melted-in wire...


In case you were want a closer glimpse of the superfly wallpaper found lurking behind the mirror...


Now, I'm on a mission to find a new mirror and light fixture.  The mirror needs to be at least a 24 x 36 rectangle.  I like round mirrors best, but round won't work in the dimensions of the space.  I also plan to paint the bathroom, but I haven't decided what color, yet.  If any of you have any mirror, color or light fixture recommendations, please, please share in the comments below!

3 comments:

  1. Yay for a helpful DIY hubby!!! He did a great job! (google research and everything!?). Can't wait to see your the next mirror you choose! :-)

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  2. We did this with our guest bathroom - although we were lucky that the mirror came off easily. What a sweet hubby you have. I ended up choosing an oval, silver framed mirror from BB&B and a light fixture from PB. Can't wait to see what you choose.

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  3. I so happy for you that your mirror adventures have been less trying than ours. :) I have always bought my bathroom light fixtures from RH. But the husband has requested that I stop because he says they are hard to install and have no flexibility when it comes to screw placement. So, I guess that's a where not to purchase instead of a where to.

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