Trash to Treasure–Painted Plastic Thrift Store Mirror

My latest thrift store find

I will paint anything–probably even things that shouldn’t be painted.  So when I saw this rather hideous mirror at the local Salvation Army for $8, I saw potential, as long as I could paint it.

Gold? Brass? Bronze? No, it’s plastic!

I actually walked by it for a couple of weeks (so did everyone else!), then I realized that I could probably work with it.  I taped newspaper to the mirror surface and went to work.  Just a note:  do take the time to tape the newspaper in place.  I’ve been lazy before and just placed it on top of the mirror, and then I waste time scraping paint off the mirror with a razor blade when I’m done.  I also elevated it on four soup cans, so my edges wouldn’t stick to my dropcloth (er, newspaper).

Taped up and primer on!

I intended to spray paint the mirror ( spray paint is my weapon of choice), thinking that all the grooves would be filled more easily.  However, those grooves and ridges made for lots of drips and pools of paint as I sprayed on the primer, so I used a can of creamy white latex from Benjamin Moore that I had in the basement for the top coat, and put it on with a brush.  What a pain to get in all those nooks and crannies!  Once it was dry, I took a piece of sandpaper and distressed it.  My movers distressed it a little more when we moved from North Carolina to Tennessee in June!!

Almost done…

Here it is, in the foyer of our new house.  I guess you can paint plastic, after all!

Thanks for bearing with me during my sabbatical from blogging.  We moved, as I mentioned earlier, and then I spent my whole summer–literally–painting the cabinets in my new kitchen.  And I did take lots of pictures, so I’ll post on that soon!