Trumeau DIY

I really started noticing Trumeau mirrors a few years ago. After I'd seen a few DIYs on blogs, I had the notion of making my own buzzing around in my brain.   One of the thrift stores nearby, Lighthouse Ministries, seems to have an abundance of discarded dresser mirrors ripe for the picking.  The day I went, there were two that would have worked for this project.  In my true "think-about-it" fashion, I did not buy this mirror the first time I saw it.

The mirror had a rustic-vibe going on, but the bones were perfect.  The how-tos start with (1) finding a mirror that will work, this one was $15.  (Sorry, I could only find a cell phone photo, but you can definitely see what I started with.)

(2)  Decide on what type of trim you want to use.  There are tons of options, you may want to look in your own garage first.  We didn't have any trim molding, so I purchased three 8-ft. pieces of narrow trim at about $5 each.

(3) Decide on your placement, measure, and cut your trim using a miter box.  I also purchased trim for the top.  You could use crown molding, since I didn't want to mess with the angles, I purchased a piece with a flat back at about $13.  After I got home, I found we had one in the garage that I could have used--um, oops, so technically, I could have saved a little money.  In the photo, above, you can see I also added a lathing strip underneath the two center pieces of molding.  My original mirror's cross piece was just a little shallower than the outside trim and the 1/4" lathing strip worked perfectly.

(4)  Paint your trim and base mirror.  Finally, some fun! I used my new Annie Sloan Chalk paint.  This is Olde Olchre.  The medallion piece was purchased for another project.  Attach your trim with glue and nails.  I used Loc-Tight in a trigger-tube and have not yet put any nails in - gah! - 'cause the ones in the garage weren't the right size and I didn't measure the depth before I went to the store.  (5) Use wood fill if you need to fix the corner miters. 

Oops, I guess I didn't get any photos of the base being painted or before-wax for that matter.  The base is Chateau Gray--which is kind of a green gray.  Or, in other words, perfect!  (6) Put on clear wax, followed by the dark wax if you want an aged look. 

I tried sanding, but it freaked me out.  I liked all of my paint on there, so I touched it up and just opted for the aged wax.

I want to give a couple of shout outs.  One is to Susie Harris--she has an inspirational Trumeau DIY that starts with just a plain mirror from Walmart.  She is a sweetheart and so encouraging.  There are also a couple of other DIYs that you may want to take a look at:  Mimi's at Blue Roof Cabin and this gorgeous one from Small Treasures Trumeau DIY.

If you follow me on Twitter you would have known that I couldn't find my miter box, and if you follow me on Facebook, you would have seen a sneak peek of the trim!

This project has quite a bit of details, so if you make one, just keep that in mind (You may want to have a couple of posts ready ahead of time, so if this projects takes a little longer, you won't have a few days without a post!!!).  If/when I make another one I would:  Gather every supply I could think of and have it in one place and work on a table.  I worked on my foyer floor and got tired of being in a frog-ready-to-hop position!




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