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Gold Leaf Painted Mirror

This tutorial will show you how to update your old mirror with some gold leaf and paint!

Gold leaf painted mirror - So Much Better With Age

It’s time for our monthly Trash To Treasure time again!

Today’s DIY project is not so much a “trash” project but more about how I nearly ruined a project but how I brought it back to life.

Follow my tutorial to make an epic fail turn into something beautiful and amazing!

Painted gold leaf on a round mirror on the mantel.

Then be sure to check out my fabulous co-hosts projects too!

 So here it is. It seems harmless enough. A dark brown wood convex mirror. I’ve had it for many years and love it.

It’s been in nearly every room in my house until one day it made it’s way to my crawl space where it stayed for a long time.

It was just a little too dark for me. It needed brightening up. A refresher of sorts.

I thought why not put some pretty gold leaf on the inner circle to make it sparkle.

A round mirror with a black frame.

Supplies:

All the supplies for the DIY tutorial.

Tutorial:

(I messed up and should have painted it white first. Start with a mirror of your liking and the color of your liking too 😉

1. Brush on the gilding adhesive to about half the area you want to cover. Wait a few minutes for the glue to get tacky. It needs to be sticky to touch for the gold leaf to stick.

2. Press the gold leaf down onto the glue and press into surface. Then gently lift backing up.

Pressing the gold leaf onto the mirror frame.

3. The gold leaf should stick easily to the glued surface. Keep pressing down and lifting up all around until the area is filled.

The gold leaf being stuck onto the mirror.

4. EEK! That’s a bit too gold for my liking. Darn it. Now what am I going to do.

You know what? I should have painted it white first. That would have looked much better, white with gold accents.

The black frame with the gold leaf on it.

5. But first, wait one hour and then brush off the gold leaf bits that didn’t stick with a soft brush.

Letting the gold leaf dry for one hour before the next step.

6. Call in for some help because you didn’t think this project was going to take this long!

I painted Annie Sloan Chalk Paint® in Old Linen, two coats.

The two kids on the floor beside the mirror.

7. Once it dries, I wet sanded just the inner circle area to reveal the gold leaf.

I knew that some of the dark wood would show up too.

Painting white around the round mirror.

8. That’s okay! Just add some more adhesive and golf leaf.

Adding some adhesive and more gold leaf.

9. Then just scrape off the paint on the mirror with a plastic spatula (use plastic so it doesn’t scratch the surface).

Scraping the paint off the mirror so more black and leaf shows up.

And finally my epic DIY mirror fail turns into a thing of beauty!

I love that you can see the bits of dark wood underneath and the different layers of gold leaf.

The finished mirror on the mantel.
Up close picture of the round mirror.
The mirror beside the an Eiffel Tower.

So needless to say, I’m very happy with the finished results (even if it did take an eternity!)

Now be sure to check out my co-hosts projects!

Trash to treasure poster.

Karianne from Thistlewood Farm

Thistlewood - So Much Better With Age

Jenna from Rain On A Tin Roof

Tray makeover graphic.

Shannon from AKA Design

Thrifted Bar Cart poster.

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