Trumeau Mirror Makeover

Hooray for my third post!  I wrote about facing my fear in the last two posts, and it's liberating just to be able to put the honest self out there and just be me.  

I'm overwhelmed with your kind comments and encouraging words - Thank you!!  I'm also excited many people are visiting my humble blog from all over the world (!!), and getting to know me post by post.  It's a great feeling to be connected and becoming part of the whole.  

With the love and support under my belt, I am ready to show another side of me.  The creative side that is.  If you are ready, I'm ready to dive in!  Here we go!

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Interior design has been a passion of mine for the past several years.  I decided to put my passion into practice when we purchased our first house six years ago.  It's been a lot of fun trying to create a home for our family!  But we are a young family with one source of income (I am a stay-at-home mom), and our budget is very limited.  As much as I covet beautiful designer furniture, I can't just go out and buy what I like.  I mostly shop at our local craigslist for furniture and spruce it up with my own hands to get the look I want.  Here is my recent creation, "French Inspired Trumeau Mirror": 

I did this project before I started my blog and unfortunately I don't have a before picture to share.  But I managed to find a similar one on ebay. 

image via ebay.com

I found this La Barge trumeau mirror from 1940s on our local craigslist and fell in love with the details.  It was gold with cream color instead of black, but it looked just like the one in the above picture.  Instead of keeping the mirror as it was, I decided to turn it into something more like this...

Antique French Trumeau Mirror:
image via dovecotebrocante.blogspot.com

 I also wanted to the mirror to compliment the antique french chair I already had. 

my antique french chair, and no, I didn't paint this one

My goal was to recreate the 1) pale gray color with light blue undertone and 2) uneven "crusty" paint finish that you see in French and Swedish antiques.  After much research, I came across Miss Mustard Seed's dining set makeover.  

image via missmustardseed.com

I basically followed Miss Mustard Seed's tutorial for this project: Two coats of Annie Sloan Chalk Paint (ASCP) in Paris Grey, followed by a wash of ASCP Old White and water mixture.  

I mixed equal parts of Old White and water in a plastic container, applied the wash with a paint brush, then wiped it off with a dry, lint-free cloth (I used an old t-shirt.)  It didn't quite create the "crustiness" I wanted, so I added a little more Old White to the mixture and let the wash sit for a couple of minutes before wiping it it off.   

When the paint had dried, I used some sand paper to distress the piece.  Then I finished it off with one coat each of ASCP "clear wax" and "clear wax & dark wax mixture" to create a protective surface and some antiquing effect.  I ended up adding just a teensy bit of dark wax to clear wax for the second coat to achieve the right amount of antiquing effect.

Here is the mirror without the Christmas wreath. 

and the details...

Do you see the uneven crustiness of the paint I was going after?  ASCP does some amazing things you can't achieve with regular latex paint. 

One last time, my new vintage trumeau mirror in its Christmas vignette.  

ahhhh... much better! 

I hope you enjoy the mirror makeover.  Happy holiday season everyone!!

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Today, I’m linking up with Miss Mustard Seed for her Furniture Feature Friday.  I’m SO excited to be part of it!! ox