Mock of Monday {Antiqued Mirror}

Have any of you happened to come across this mirror collage at Anthropologie?

I am in love with the antiqued look of the mirrors.

I have wanted to try to recreate them for awhile, but I've been too scared to try. The process involves the use of a couple of highly toxic chemicals and to be perfectly honest that really freaks me out.

Today, I finally got up the nerve and went out and bought all of the supplies:

Paint thinner

Muriatic Acid

Chemical Resistant Gloves

I recently purchased a set of of oval mirrors and thought they would be the perfect guinea pigs to test it out on.

Ready to get your Bill Nye on? Here we go.

First, remove the mirror from the frame and place on a thick layer of newspaper.


Put on some glasses and gloves and say a little prayer. No seriously. You don't want to look like this when you're done.


Then pour some of the thinner into a disposable cup

and apply liberally to the back of the mirror with an old brush. The paint thinner will soften the protective coating on the back of the mirror allowing you to scrape it off.



Let it sit for however long the instructions recommend you leave it on for. {the stuff I used recommended 15 minutes}.
Then, scrape away the coating with a spackle blade. I don't know if I just had stubborn mirrors or what, but I had to apply thinner twice because not all of the coating came off the first time. I'm not gonna lie, it took a little elbow grease but it eventually came off.

After all of the coating has been removed, wipe the mirror backs off with a wet paper towels, or rinse with the hose. I opted for the hose.

Now you need to prepare the muriatic acid. I purchased a small plastic funnel at Walmart for .69 cents which I used to pour the acid into a squirt bottle.
You will use it to lightly spray the acid around the edges of the mirror. The aid works really fast so just be ready with the hose in hand to rinse the mirrors off. It will only take about a minute.
Gently dab off all of the moisture on the mirror and lay face down to dry.
Once dry, apply a coat of gold spray paint to the back and allow to dry some more.

Then place the mirror back into the frame and...VOILA! An awesome antiqued mirror.

The cost of the supplies is a little investment: $10 for muriatic acid, $8 for paint thinner and $6 for gloves for a grand total of $24. But, I have enough supplies left over for several other mirrors.

Aknowledgements to Mandi over at Vintage Revivals for having the kahuna's to antique a mirror first. You go gurl!