Repurposing: Turning Old into New

Hello All! It's my turn for the blog! As Derek said in the last one, there are a few artsy projects I'm working on for the house. One is currently on hold because of the weather (ahhh rain!). However, I was able to get this one finished and put up in the house.

In the apartment, Derek and I had this mirror hanging up in the hallway. It was more for decoration, as we hardly actually used the mirror, and every year, I always sprayed it with fake snow to make it festive for the holidays. We both liked the mirror, but didn't know where to place it nor did we really need a mirror in the new house. 

The mirror just sitting around, wanting to be
used for something! 

I didn't want to just throw it away, so I needed to figure out what to do with it. I saw on Pinterest that you can turn just about any paintable surface into a chalkboard...old picture frames, mirrors, glass, walls, pretty much anything really. 

I thought that sounded like a cool, quick and easy project that was perfect for this mirror! So I told Derek my idea and then went about purchasing the supplies, which pretty much meant buying chalkboard paint. Once I came home, I started the process and here's how it turned out:

The first step was to protect the frame by taping it off. Once that was done, I was ready for the first coat. It looks a little uneven because it took me a bit to get the hang of how to actually spray it. 

All taped off

The first coat 

The can said to wait at least 20 minutes to an hour before applying the second coat. I waited about half an hour and then decided I would apply the second coat. Well, someone else had a diferent plan in mind. There was a bee who decided he needed to crawl around on the craft paper and check out the mirror. I decided spraying paint around him wasn't a good idea and instead waited it out. 

He stalled the project for another half hour

After the bee went away and I was able to carry on, I sprayed the second coat and then let it sit for an hour before bringing it inside. Once it was done, I removed the tape and admired my work. After that, all that was left was to have Derek hang it up! Now the biggest decisions are agreeing on what we want to do with it. I made it to be functional and keep lists on it, while Derek thinks we need to draw something artistic on it and keep it that way. What do you think? 

After the second coat 

Inside, with the tape removed 

Hanging on the wall in the kitchen 

That's it for now! We have a few other things to share and will get them up soon. I hope you enjoyed reading about my first artsy project. :) 

-Chelsey