DIY Sunburst Mirrors - On The Cheap!

Hello! So, I realize there are about a million tutorials all over the blogosphere for these and I'm probably on the back side of the trend but I was so excited about these that I figured I'd share anyway.

I made two mirrors. I wanted one large and one small so I bought two different sizes of mirrors. The larger of the two was $1.49 and the smaller was $0.99. I picked up two packages of barbeque skewers and a sheet of foam core poster board at the Dollar Tree.

I placed both mirrors on the board and traced them...

...then I cut out the circles.

I found the center of each circle and stuck a skewer in it to mark it off.

Then, I hot glued the skewers around, meeting in the middle and trying to evenly space them.

Then, I glued a skewer at the edge of the board between each of the skewers affixed at the middle.

Then, I glued more on either side of those glued at the edge of the board but glued them at the in-between point of the other skewers.

Finally, just for good measure, I glued the crap out of it. I put a thick coat of hot glue over the whole thing just to make sure it all stuck together.

View from the top :)

I painted one oil-rubbed bronze and the other heirloom white, making sure to evenly coat all sides of the skewers and the piece of foam board.

I poked a hole in the back of the foam board for hanging. I love the finished product! This one is big - almost three feet wide.

(Yes, I realize this isn't perfectly centered on the wall. For now, it's good enough!)

For the smaller one, I used the same process but first cut the skewers in half.

It's just what my downstairs bath needed!

The total cost for this project was $5 - for BOTH MIRRORS! $2.50 for the mirrors themselves, $2.00 for two packages of skewers and $0.50 for the foam board. I had the paint on hand.

For $5.00, I don't care if I'm behind the times or coming in at the tail end of this trend. I love my mirrors :)

Have you made any DIY sunburst mirrors like this? I know I've seen so many beautiful variations out in blogland...if you have, link it up in the comments below! I'd love to see!

A New Table

So I've been obsessed with pedestal tables lately.  I love how they seem to take up so much less space and in my small dining area, that's a must. 

We had two older tables and the one we were using when we first moved into our house was a large rectangle shape farmhouse table and just took up too much space.  It was also a medium oak stain and I'm really not a fan of oak.  Now, if we had a different style home and a larger dining area, I would have painted it and called it good.  It was in such good shape and had a bunch of leaves so the thing got massive -  it would have been perfect for big family dinners.

Anyhow, I listed that sucker on Craigslist and sold it almost right away.  In the interim we've been using a small round colonial (I guess?) style set that we had in storage. 

This one was getting a little closer to what I wanted; it was round and a darker color. Unfortunately, I hated the chairs - hated them.

I used the money I made off the sale of the first table on some new Parson's chairs and set out searching Craigslist for a new table. My requirements were that it 1) be round, 2) be a pedestal and 3) have leaves.  I found this one for $25.  I wish I had taken a before picture. This wasn't in too bad of shape, there were a couple nicks that had to be fixed on the pedestal, the top was laminate and it was a really bad color. 

I set out to refinish this and get it in the house.  (It only took 3 months)

I used a spray primer made for plastic because of the laminate and topped that with a few coats of Krylon Oil Rubbed Bronze spray paint. Here was the important part - I'm so glad I read Infarrantly Creative because Beckie had written a post about the importance of using an oil-based poly on your dining table. I know that if I hadn't read that I would be cursing a sticky table so thanks, Beckie!

Anyhow, this is the new table! I've still got my eye out for a super deal on a table I might like more but for less than $40, this one will do just fine for as long as it needs to.

Better, yes?