I’ve been wanting to create a large French Provincial Style mirror for my own bedroom for the longest time. I have made a few to sell and watched them go with wistful eyes, but not this time!
The hold up has been the style of my bedroom…which was about as far from French and pretty as one could get! You know how it is when you are renting….there’s not much you can do! However I managed to gain permission to change our bedroom walls from pink & yellow (yes I heard you groan!) to Antique White USA……and my goodness what a difference!All of a sudden I had a suitable wall for my long awaited mirror!
My daughter Anna picked this beauty up for me at a garage sale for just $45.
Now before anyone yells at me for destroying a perfectly good painting, I don’t believe this was a significant piece of art. I remember when I was 18 years old, stopping in a shopping centre at Knox and watching with amazement as a fellow painted an enormous painting just like this one…in 12 minutes!!…. and popped it in a glamorous gold frame when it was barely even dry. I was so impressed that I bought the painting and had it until very recently when it no longer went with any part of my decor. The style was almost identical to this one and many others I see in similarly ornate frames, only my frame was nowhere near as ornate as this one. The fact is that like many older pieces of furniture people, don’t want them and I have now picked up 3 at garage sales for under $40 each. If nothing else, that gorgeous frame deserves to be seen…and so it shall!
I set to work on it,mixing up a few different paint colours on a paper plate – first a mid grey, then sponged with a lighter silver grey, followed by some extensive dry brushing with antique white. I dry brushed the ornate corners with a darker grey to accentuate them and add some extra depth.
I rubbed a good covering of clear wax over the whole frame and wiped off the excess
and followed up with a generous coat of Miss Mustard Seeds White Wax and my pretty ‘just as I pictured it’ French Provincial frame was done!
Off to the local Glaziers ‘Bettsy’s Glass’ for a custom cut and fitted mirror and less than 24 hours later this magnificent mirror is gracing my bedroom wall and making me smile with delight.
What do you think? Isn’t it pretty!
