on the cheap: sunburst mirror.

i think it was in reading this young house, a home decor blog written my a young 20something couple about renovating their house, that i first discovered the ubiquitous sunburst mirror. i've noticed them in lots of different places now, ranging from gold-leafed to made of driftwood, and I can't really think of any good reason why i like them so much, i just do!

this mirror from ballard designs is what i had in mind when i started looking for a do-it-myself-on-the-cheap version:

or this one from ethan allen. i found several different diy versions made of everything from simple, weathered driftwood to one very unexpected in plastic utensil spoons!

[courtesy of marie claire idees- LOVE that one, but despite my intensely genuine excitement over it, somehow couldn't get my hubby on board. maybe it was the pink].

i've seen several beautiful driftwood ones, which i also love, and thought about making this wooden plant stake one until i stumbled across a little tutorial for a rolled paper one... originally a wreath... but i thought, if i make it a little flatter and stick a round mirror in the middle? presto. sunburst mirror.

so that is what i did. here is my new little cheapo creation hanging in a little mudroom-ish spot by our front door:
i started with an oval wooden base [less than $2] a 10 inch round mirror base [around $1, both from ac moore] and a book that i got for $1 from a used book store about gardening [even though i'm a serial plant killer] because the font was printed in a cool green color, and the pages were aged just right, and it had such unique little illustrations [don't worry, i saved those for another project someday!]
[chapter 8: love will find a way. how can you not love that?]

basically, i just tore out each sheet and gently rolled it into a tube, squishing some hot glue to "close" the tube into a flat part on one end. once it was flat, then i hot glued it to the back of the wooden base. out of all the pictures i took as i went, this is the one step i did not take a picture of and obviously should have! if you make this project yourself, i'm hoping you'll know what i mean with the highly technical terms of rolling, squishing, and flattening [hah!]. hopefully you can see what i mean:
i rolled and glued, rolled and glued, all the way around the back of the wooden base until it looked like this:then i rolled and glued the paper tubes all the way around the back of the mirror separately from the base.
i did a second layer on the mirror, gluing another tube in between each of the first tubes, until it looked like this:
then i covered the back of the mirror in a lot of hot glue and pressed it down really hard onto the front of the wooden base to make it stick. i had wanted to do a second row on the wooden base as well, but honestly, by that point i had run out of pages in my book. and the little space in between doesn't really bother me since the unfinished wood is almost the exact same color as the aged book pages. it blends together well, and now that it is all glued together, i think the last layer i wanted to do probably would have made it a little too "fluffy."
i really love how it looks, filling that little empty space so evenly! and it's great for that last second hair/teeth/makeup check right before you walk out the door.
AND not too bad for a $3 job! [ps- i thought it was worth mentioning that the whole thing is light as a feather. we hung ours with one of those little brass bars that nails into the back and then "self-levels" on the nail in the wall. perfect!]