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Sunday, September 2, 2012

STARBURST MIRROR TUTORIAL


 I know! I know! The starburst mirror isn't a new concept and has been pretty popular for a while, but what is a funky Mid Century house (or any house for that matter) without one?!  I'm sure there are many DIY tutorials all over the blogosphere, but after making a few for myself and others, I thought I would put together a little one of my own.  Here are a few DO's (and DON'Ts)

Below are examples of 2 different ones I have made in the past.  The top being a little "fancier" because of the frame around the center mirror and the bottom is an example of a more simple startbust mirror, without the frame. 



A small version for my girls room


You really can make any diameter you want.  Whatever you think will fit your wall space. But to keep it simple, I will use the dimensions of the larger, first mirror I have pictured.

For materials you will need (all materials were found at hobby lobby)
  • a large mirror for the center  (My top starburst was a 10" mirror), 
  • a wooden crochet hoop thingy (big enough for your mirror to fit into, mine was 10") 
  • 48 dowels of whatever thickness you want.  I actually used 2 different size dowels, thickness wise, and mixed them up... not because I am super creative, but because I didn't realize some were smaller until I got a cuttin and was to lazy to run back to the store.  But I really do like how it turned out in the end.  
  • hot glue gun
  • tough cardboard to use as base to adhere mirror and dowels to

I ended up getting the 48" long dowels so I could cut them in half and use both pieces.

1 - Trace around the mirror and cut out the circle.  This will be the main support.


***Now here is a very good example of a DON'T...When tracing out the cardboard for the back             support, trace just the mirror, NOT the mirror with the hoop around it.  This will ensure that the carboard backing will not show when all done.

2 - cut out circle from cardboard

3- cut dowels to desired lenths.  I used a miter saw and cut them to lenths of 16", 14" and 12".

4 - find a pattern that you like.  I used a "TALL, SHORT, MEDIUM, SHORT, MEDIUM, SHORT, TALL" pattern and it only took me about 8 days to figure out this pattern out!  So unless your feeling really creative...save yourself a lot of time and feel free to use this pattern:)

5 - hot glue the dowels on




6 - Flip it over and hot glue the hoop on. I did have to do a cut on my hoop to make it go nicely around the mirror (sizing it up beforehand), then added some wood filler to the small space the cut created.  If you look really close, you can see the cut on the top of the hoop, this was before I added the bit of filler.



7 - After the filler was dried and sanded, I spray paint it.  I used a metallic gold by Valspar, but any color will look great!

8 - after paint is dry, adhere the big mirror in the middle with hot glue and randomly add mirrors of whatever size you want.



I had to sneak in a photo of my new pinch pleated curtains I made for the den, the room really needed some color.  There is an easy tutorial I did a while back if your interested:)



Oh, also... this is pretty much what my dining room looks like 24/7...always some fancy craft going on.

Very interesting body proportions on the little peeps miss Ava.....:)  Love her!


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