The Master Bathroom Project | Adding Framed Mirrors (Part 6)

Ok.

This is blog post #6 about the Master Bathroom Remodel. I went from the easiest part (painting) to the hardest part (creating our own framed mirrors with backlit LEDs). If you need to catch up on what we've done so far, check out my previous posts:

• The Design
• Removing the Mirror
• Refinishing the Cabinets
• Wiring for the New Lights
• Dual-tone Painting

Instead of the long mirror going across the entire vanity, we wanted to replace it with two smaller framed mirrors centered over each sink basin. In addition, I had the bright idea of back-lighting the mirror with LED lights. (I drew my inspiration from the back-lighting in this Kichler lighting video.)

Preview of the final result

Pretty cool idea eh? Well I thought so too until we had to start putting it together. We could have easily just bought a framed mirror... or even a pre-built frame itself! But, no... we decided to build everything from scratch and things were a little more complicated than expected.

In the end, we were happy with the finished product, but I'll at least suggest buying a framed mirror to minimize your frustrations. :)

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Would you like to join in on the framing, mirror, and LED fun? Here's how we did it, so you can DIY:

PART 1 - Building the Framed Mirror

SUPPLIES:

• 232" (19' 4") of MDF casing
• Paint (same paint/stain from the cabinet refinish project)
• Two 30" x 24" Mirrors 
• Liquid Nails adhesive
• Staple Gun (w/ staples)
• Miter Box & Saw kit
• A couple clamps
• (if needed) 1/2 inch wood screws

DIY STEPS
Time frame: 1 day

1. Cut the MDF casing 2 inches longer than the dimensions of the mirror.

The mirror was 24" x 30" in our case, so we cut two pieces that were 26" and two pieces that were 32" for one mirror. We cut the MDF casing 2 inches longer so that was a 1-inch clearance around all sides of the frame.  This allowed us to have space to adhere the LED lights to the wood. To cut the 45 degree angles, we used a miter box and hand saw.

Measured the MDF

Cut the MDF using a Miter Box and Saw. It's a fantastic tool.

Note: Make sure that when you are cutting, you are paying attention to which edges you are cutting from. The thicker ends of the MDF casing should have more length than the shorter ends because it will be on the outside of the frame. We weren't  paying attention and cut it incorrectly. We didn't have enough extra wood to cut an entirely new piece, so we had to fix it by gluing some pieces together.

Our mistake. So we had to glue two pieces together and paint over the seam...ugh

2. Paint all sides (even the back!) of the casing.

It's important to paint all sides of the casing because the mirror will reflect whatever color is on the inside. (Again, we didn't do that, so we had to make some adjustments...you'll see what I mean later.)

You will see that we painted these before we cut them. That was a mistake.
Plus we only painted one side of them. Another mistake.

3. Let it dry and do a second coat, if needed.

4. Piece and staple the frames together.

Layout the frame, face down. Staple the backs together with the staple gun.

My handy dany staple gun. (Notice that the backs are not painted. They should be.)

5. Attach the mirror to the frame.

The mirror came with mounting clips typically used to screw into the walls. If you just reverse them and screw them into the wooden frame, you can easily mount it. You may need to buy shorter screws though (hence the 1/2" wood screws on the supply list).

These little clips were meant to hold mirror to the wall.

Well, we didn't find these clips until we were attaching the mount to the mirror (Part 3 of this entire ordeal). So we tried to glue the mirror on instead. The guy at Home Depot recommended some all-purpose, extra strong glue to us... it did not work! We glued the frame to the mirror multiple times and it still wasn't sticking. If only we had found the mirror clips sooner!

Our attempts at gluing the mirror failed miserably. Every time we thought the glue was dry, it wasn't.  Even after we clamped it and weighed it down with the heaviest things we could find in our garage, we still had not luck.

This process seems simple right? It is, but we had a lot of trial and error with glue and other aspects. Once the frame is done, you are now ready to attach the LED lights.



PART 2 - Attaching the LED lights

SUPPLIES:

• LiquidNails adhesive
• LED rope light mounting clips
• Two 12ft LED rope lights

DIY STEPS
Time frame: 1-2 hours

1. Orient the framed mirror.

Figure out the location and orientation of each mirror. It is important to determine which part of the mirror is closest to the outlet. Therefore, you can lay down the LED rope light with the plug oriented closest to the outlet.

2. Attach LED lights.

Attach the LED lights with either a glue adhesive (LiquidNails) or mounting clips. Depending on taste and preference, you can use the mounting clips that are supplied with the rope lights. The mounting clips raise the LED lights off of the mirror a quarter of an inch, which will be visible when mounted on the wall. The glue will also hold the mirror in place, but you are going to run out of hands to hold the LED rope in place while the glue dries. Note: Do not try to use any other glue! Liquid Nails is the best.

At this point, we hadn't bought the liquid nail adhesive so we were using hot glue, the home-depot-"recommended"-glue that failed, the staple gun and tape. Not the best use of resources or time. 

Hot Glue!

Staple Gun!

Tape! All failed. 

The LED rope lights came with mounting clips, which we didn't find until after we had finished this process. This was the second time that we didn't dump out all of the materials in a package.  Fool me once; shame on you. Fool me twice; shame on me. I learned my lesson! Next time I vow to dump out everything in the box before I start putting things together.


PART 3 - MOUNTING THE MIRROR

SUPPLIES:

• LiquidNails adhesive
• Clamps
• Four 8" 2x4 wood blocks
• Two 16" x 20" particle boards
• 1" x 2" x 32" furring strip
• 2.5" wood screws
• drywall anchors

DIY STEPS
Time frame: 1-1.5 days

1. Figure out how much clearance you need for the LED light plug.

Weirdly, the LED plug was like 3 inches long. This meant that the mirror needed to be at least 2.25" off of the wall because the recessed outlet went in .75". So we had to build a mount that pushed the framed mirror off the wall at least 3 inches. We designed a mounting mechanism on paper and a process of assembly to best adhere the mirror to the wall.

The plan and the measurements.

It took a lot of time to figure out the best method. We were actually going to nix the entire LED light idea because the technical skills required seemed to be beyond our capabilities, but we decided to push through it.

2. Cut your wood pieces.

We measured out the dimensions of each of the materials (indicated above), clamped it to a stable horizontal surface, and cut away! We also sanded off the excess frayed edges.

Measuring the particle board to be 16" x 20".

Power tools. Yessss! There will be 2 of these boards.

Cutting the 2x4s to 8" pieces. There should be 4 of them.

Using the reciprocating saw to cut the furring strip into two 16" pieces.

Sanded off the excess frays.

I was pretty excited. I got to use my rotating and reciprocating saws for the first time!

3. Mount furring strip along the top of the particle board.

Line the skinny side of the furring strip with LiquidNails. For more stability, also drill three (approximately) evenly spaced holes to screw the particle board onto the furring strip. Drill and screw in from the particle board side, not the furring strip side.

Glue the furring strip onto the particle board.

Clamp them together.

Flip the boards over from the orientation in the picture above. Drill pilot holes and insert screws through the particle board into the furring strips.

Finished mirror mount. Well, one part of it.

4. Measure the location of your particle board on the backside of your mirror.

Through a lot measurements, we found the best location for the particle board mount so that we were maximizing the usage of the stud locations. Once we had those measurements down, we traced the particle board onto the back of the mirror using a permanent marker. Make sure it is level!

We had to do a lot of measuring in this project...

5. Glue on the particle board to the mirror.
LiquidNails is your best friend. Squeeze that stuff within the boundaries of the outline you just created on the mirror. Attach the board with the furring strip pointing up. Let this dry for 16 hours!

Once it's dry, it's not going anywhere.

Tip: Find something heavy to put on top of it. This will distribute the glue and ensure that the mount sticks to the mirror back.

6. While the glue is drying, measure the mount location on your wall.

Take accurate measurements of everything! How far away is the mount from edge of the mirror? How far away is the mirror from the wall? How high is the mirror above the wall? Write it all down and begin to pinpoint the locations on your bathroom wall.

7. Attach 2x4s to the wall with the screws.

We used 4 screws per 2x4. Where the 2x4 is not directly over a stud, pre-drill holes and insert drywall anchors. Make sure they are level with each other, otherwise be prepared for a lopsided mirror.

We put in dry wall anchors where the blocks were not going into studs.

Drill at least 4 holes in each block for the screws. 

Make sure they both are level. We used that thin piece of wood shown so we could determine the levelness since we didn't have one of those big levelers

About 16 hours after you've glued the particle board to the mirror back...

8. Slide the mirror onto mounted 2x4s.

This is the last step! Place the mirror onto both of the 2x4s and (as best as you can) nail the furring strip onto the 2x4s. This will secure the mirror to the wall. We tried to put at least 2 nails in each 2x4.

Hammering it in was a bit difficult. There wasn't not a lot of clearance to hold the nail up and hammer at the same time. But we eventually did it.

Plug in the LED rope light and you are ready to go!!

Shot with main lighting

Shot without main lighting.

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TOTAL COST: $155

• (2) 24" x 30" Mirrors ~$40 
• (3) MDF 84" casing ~$13
• Liquid Nails ~$4
• Particle Board ~$18
• Furring Strip ~ $1
• Miter Box Saw ~$15
• 2-1/2 Wood Screws (Box of 20) ~$2
• 2" nails ~$4
• Clamps ~$6
• 1/2" wood screws ~$2
• (2) LED Lights ~$40
• 36" 2x4 wood plank ~$10

OVERALL IMPRESSION
The project turned out to be a little pricier than anticipated. If we ever do this again, we'll have to do some better research on LED backlighting. I think I would also shop around for better LED lights. These lights were too warm in color and kind of finicky to stick on. If we had just built the frame and the mirror (and had the right glue and dumped out all the materials from the get-go) this project may have been a little more manageable.

Also since we didn't paint the inside of the frame beforehand, we had to figure out how to hide the ugliness. We had some rope handy, so we spray painted it and hot-glued it onto the frame. Quick and easy fix, but obviously not ideal.

"The Ugliness"... you can see the inside wood color through the mirror's reflection. This is why it is important to paint all sides of the frame.

Rope.

Spray painting the rope.

Hot gluing the rope to the mirror.

Ugliness gone! Trimming the frays

You live, you learn...

Finally! It's done!

At last, we are getting to the final touches — putting up the sconces and shelf!

The light is near! Now it's time to get some rest...

{Rashida}