Guest Bath Farmhouse Makeover

Pinterest

Twitter

Facebook

It all started with a mirror…. if you follow me on Instagram you’ve already had a chance to see my garage sale mirror score for $5. I’d been on the hunt for a new mirror all summer, I keep an ongoing garage sale list on my phone of things I’m in search of and won’t pay department store prices for, and while hubby and I did the US12 garage sales that run the entire length of Michigan I came across this one. It had a film of something on it and I tried cleaning it off with a tissue and bottled water but knew it was going to take more elbow grease than that so I threw out a ridiculous price and asked the man if he’d take $5 for it since I wasn’t sure I could get the grime off from it. He pondered for a while and said YES. 

Here’s the mirror that was in there before, I’ve never like it but we were at that phase in the build process where I was ready to be done with it all, and I just grabbed a cheap mirror to get me by until I found something I liked better. Well 8 years later I finally got around to replacing it. I don’t know how often you’ve priced mirrors, but those babies are expensive. Hence the garage sale list. 

Anyway once I got the mirror home I tried to clean it with my Norwex Window Cloth, by the way if you’ve never used Norwex products you’re missing out, and that fine cloudy film on the mirror didn’t budge. Ugh! maybe my $5 score wasn’t a good bargain after all. Well I wasn’t about to be defeated that easily so I started thinking about what the man told me about the mirror and was repeating to my son when he said I know exactly what’s on the mirror, PAINT.

The man had the mirror stored in a garage where he paints cars and it had a mist of paint overspray all over it. I tried mineral spirits and that didn’t cut through it and my son, who used to work in a body shop, said I’d have to scrape it with a razor blade. Yep sure enough one quick swipe with a razor blade over the surface cleaned it right up. I started the happy dance and took it into the house to transform the frame with a a little Magnolia paint in the color Shiplap. 

Once I ran a dry brush with paint over it I got the look I was going for. I was one happy girl with my $5 mirror. Did I mention the mirror is so heavy I can barley pick it up? I had to google the stamp on the back to see if I could figure out why the thing was so hefty and found out it’s from the early 50’s and was German made. That made me fell like I purchased a well made sturdy piece, you know from the good old days when things were made to last. 

I couldn’t just stop there so I decided to replace my mason jar lights with cage lights. I didn’t dislike the mason jar look I was just ready for something new. These came from Lowes  and only took me a few minutes to swap out so it was a quick and inexpensive upgrade. I did put the mason jar ones to the back of the vanity just in case I decided to change the look back, that way I wouldn’t have to cut the pieces I needed all over again. Smart thinking for once!

And to top it all off I stopped on the roadside and gathered myself up a big bath of wild Sweet peas to add to the space. I just love Michigan in the summer time there’s always an abundance of wildflowers growing in roadside ditches. I never purchase flowers for decorating all summer long I just help myself to what nature is providing.  

I predrilled the mirror frame and hubby and son helped me lift it into place. I’m excited to have a new look and enjoy going by and peeking in the door again. It’s amazing what a simple and inexpensive change can do to a small space. I’m still on the lookout for another mirror because our master bath has the same horrible mirror in it that this one had.