Hi All!

Do you remember back in December I participated in a Secret Santa Hop?  We each had a $25 gift budget and $5 thrift store find budget.  Then we packaged all our gifts up and sent them on to another bloggy friend.  After the hustle and bustle of the holidays were over we took our thrifted item and flipped them into something fabulous!

1. The Dean’s List Blog // 2. Pretty Practical Home // 3. Casa Watkins 4. The Twin Cedars // 5. Our Crafty Mom // 6. Twelve on Main // 7. Creatively Homespun // 8. My Life From Home // 9. Hobnail House // 10. Domicile 37 // 11. Beauteeful Living // 12. Knock it off Crafts 13. Pocket of Posies 14. The Weathered Fox // 15. Shabby Grace Blog

I was so lucky to get Tee from Beauteeful Living as my Secret Santa!  She sent me the best gifts! Tee sent me my new favorite statement necklace and this really cute notebook!  But what I didn’t show you in my original post was the thrift item she sent me.

It was this really cool ornate picture frame!  I’m telling you Tee knows the way to my heart!  I love picture frames!  My favorite part is getting to switch out the artwork as the seasons change.

What makes this post a little different from my regular posts is that I actually made this little picture frame over twice.  As you scroll through our blogs it is easy to think that everything we do turns out perfect.   But this is sooo not the case.  We mess things up too, quite a lot actually!  If I have learned one thing after starting this blog its, if we keep trying and push past the mistakes the finished product often turns out much better than the original idea.

Case in point: The first time I tried to give this frame a makeover I thought rubbing it down with a little white paint would be perfect.  Fast, simple, beautiful right?  Wrong.  I hated it.  Next I tried sanded some of the white off to give it more of a rustic look.  Double wrong.  It just looked goofy, out of place, and not at all like something I wanted in my house.  So I put the project away for a couple of weeks until I found a way to fix it.

I was walking through my bedroom one day when inspiration finally struck!  I have this beautiful ornate vintage goldleaf mirror I bought at a yardsale a couple of years ago for $1!  Yes $1!!  All the scroll work around the edge had been broken off but was still salvageable.  After some glue and metal support brackets its one of my favorite pieces!  It is the perfect accent in our Romantic Industrial bedroom and if you’ll notice this cute little picture frame looks strikingly similar.

So I pulled my goldleaf goodies out and went to work! Excluding dry time it only took 30 minutes to change this frame from drab to fab!

I chose to use Aged Bronze Goldleaf for this project because it has natural highs and lows just like my vintage mirror. After a light coat of glue was set (about 30 min) I started applying the goldleaf in small sections using soft dry paintbrush to gently smooth the goldleaf into place.

For this project I used one sheet of bronze goldleaf per coat.  Because of all the beautiful details this little framed needed two coats of goldleaf to cover all the openings and small crevices.  After letting everything sit for a couple of hours I went back and brushed off all the excess goldleaf using a dry clean paint brush.

Once all the goldleaf was applied I cleaned the glass thoroughly with rubbing alcohol and painted one side of the glass using Krylon Looking Glass Mirror-Like Paint. If you haven’t tried this paint yet it’s amazing! Just make sure you’re always painting on the reverse side of the glass. It’s a great way to get the look of an aged mirror with out all the expense! Win Win!!

Can you believe it only took 30 min to change a thrifted frame into a beautiful goldleaf mirror! (excluding dry time) Now all that’s left to do is sit back and enjoy my new goldleaf mirror!  So cute and it looks great sitting with my husbands great grandmas book and my grandmas watch!

Always remember that great DIY doesn’t have to cost a fortune!  I hope this post inspires you to makeover your next thrift store find!

If you like the look of my DIY goldleaf mirror but don’t have the time to make one here are a few options for you with a similar look and feel!

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