Put A Mirror On It

The noodling around in the bedroom that we started yesterday continues.  This time, we’re putting a mirror on it:

Since we emptied out the entryway and started switching it up to make it more functional for us, we were left with a mirror and no place to hang it.  Side note:  I swear we’re still working on the entryway…the painting the board and batten is a painfully slow project and I have more important things to do these days than paint trim…like wrap Christmas presents.  Anyway…we took the mirror from here:

And moved it to our master bedroom above the dressers in the old closet nook.

I swear the mirror was made for this space.  Not only is it the perfect size and shape to fit in the strange, angular nook where our dressers live, it is also the perfect color thanks to a little mirror refinishing way back when.  The mirror was a yard sale find from Colby’s mom.  She’s got a knack for finding amazing things at thrift stores, yard sales, and on the side of the road.  And she’s never shy about loading up our car with her finds when we visit and saying things like, “you can do something with this” and usually I do.  The curvy mirror was no exception.

You can’t REALLY appreciate the mirror on it until you’ve seen the before…the lackluster before.

There was a serious void and the space was begging for a mirror.  I had planned to DIY one out of a ginormous decorative bowl (ironically also from Colby’s mom) but with the entry mirror out of commission it made sense to use that mirror to fill the space in our bedroom.

I’m not gonna lie, I didn’t think the mirror would work in our bedroom.  I didn’t think it was the right color and I thought the shape would look awkward in the nook.  As per usual these days…I was wrong.  Look for the blue moon folks…Angie was wrong!  Anyway…here’s the mirror hanging out on our bed pre hanging.

And here’s Colby checking out the appropriate height for hanging the mirror…or maybe just checking himself out.  As Joey Tribiani would say “how you doin’?”  Again, we used our scientific method of eyeballing it to determine mirror hanging height.

Don’t let the mirror fool you.  She may look light, but she’s one heavy chick!  I know ladies are a little sensitive about their weight but there was no denying the extra pounds she was carrying around.  Needless to say, we really needed to hang the mirror from a stud for safety’s sake.  So out came the stud finder.

And we did find one stud:

Haha!  Corny joke credit goes to Colby on that one.  It was his idea.  I swear!  I’m 100% not behind that moment!  Anyway…then in went two screws into the wall, one into a stud and one into the sheet rock.  Using two screws helps dissipate the weight.  Given that the stud was off center from where we wanted to hang the mirror, the second screw helped us shift the mirror over without fearing it would come crashing down from not hanging on a stud.

The wire on the back of the mirror simply loops around the two screws in the wall.

And then there was a mirror on it.

Instantly, our room felt bigger.  I know all the pro decorators and house stagers always say that mirrors help make rooms feel bigger but I’ve never experienced it firsthand before.  But now you can call me a believer…I’m drinking the mirror Kool-Aid!  And I love how the mirror draws your eye into the otherwise boring dresser nook.

And of course I couldn’t leave the dresser top alone.  It needed a little adjusting.  So I shopped Angie’s Home Decorator’s Basement, my favorite source for home decor, and came up with a cute and functional setup.

The lilies are fake and from Target about five or six years ago, the glass jars and the silver julep cup were wedding gifts from Pottery Barn, the egg crate hails from West Elm during our little Boston shopping/Red Sox/Beer Fest trip, and the coral is yet another find from Colby’s mom.  Coral has been my latest obsession.  I just can’t get enough of the stuff.

The dresser area is where I get ready in the morning…as in do my makeup and put on my bling.  So I upgraded my makeup brush storage from a water glass to the julep cup and also added some dresser top storage for cotton balls and swabs for makeup flub up fixes and nightly removal.  Functional yet cute.

The combo of sheer hanging yesterday and the mirror hanging/functionalizing of the dresser area has made our master bedroom the cutest room in our house (in my opinion).  I have been known to prance around the house chanting “our bedroom is cute, our bedroom is cute, our bedroom is cute”.  Amazing how relocating some art and a mirror and hanging some curtain sheers makes such a huge difference in a space.

Pssst…Mirror mirror on the wall, what’s your favorite change up of them all?  As in…what have you tweaked up lately for a huge impact in your home?