You can paint anything! (Well, sort of…)
My grandmother’s hope chest was once passed down to me with the proviso: “Just don’t paint it.” Yep. I’m THAT person (and apparently it’s well known.) And while I’m sensible enough to know not to paint family heirlooms, I do have a bit of a penchant for painting pretty much anything . And why not? If you’re not happy with an accessory or a piece of furniture or, well, pretty much anything, a coat of paint can bring instant pizazz (does anyone say pizazz anymore? They should!) to a sad looking something-mer-other.
Case in point. I present to you… a mirror. Tada!
I’ve had this mirror since my early university years (so it’s at least 15 years old) and I think it was a $9.99 Zellers special originally. The frame is definitely some sort of plastic, and over the past decade and a half, it’s done that yellowing thing that white plastic does over time. It’s also been marred by the occasional renegade mascara wand…
But, despite being ugly, there’s otherwise nothing wrong with it. The glass isn’t wonky (you know, when mirrors get to the point where they’re just SLIGHTLY warped and they make your toosh look ginormous? Yep – hate that!) and it’s sturdy and it’s survived about seven moves since my tiny little university apartment days. This mirror is definitely a trooper. (An ugly trooper, but a trooper nonetheless.)
So, my solution? Paint. Of course. Did I bother to scuff ‘er up at all? Nope. A light sanding probably would have been a great idea, but it was an extra step that I didn’t feel like taking for a once-$9 mirror (I’m super lazy like that.) That said, I did indeed prime it with a high adhesion primer (my beloved Zinsser Bulls Eye Primer.) And then a couple coats of Snowfall White paint later (to match my trim and baseboards) and I suddenly have a much nicer looking mirror specimen…
Easy eh? It’s obviously not perfect (I had a moment of dirt-blows-in-fresh-paint-panic while painting the mirror in my backyard – one of the hazards of painting outdoors), but it was free (since I already owned both the paint and the mirror) and it’s absolutely fine for the top of our stairwell (which seems perfectly suited for a full-length mirror!)
So see? You can paint anything, really! Except maybe your grandmother’s hope chest. :)
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