The Window Mirror Project

This is an awesome idea I came across when I was trying to figure out what to do with all the windows I’ve collected. It's an old basement window from a house in Hopkins that was built in 1922. Old things are so cool!

Here’s what it used to look like:

Since it was sitting outside for quite some time and had a bit of a funny smell to it, I decided it would be best to strip it and repaint it. (If I were to pinpoint the smell I'd say it was dog pee but I don't know for sure. For piece of mind, we'll say it just smelled old and maybe the owners were hippies.)

After removing the putty from around each pane I popped out the remaining pane of glass and pulled out all the little glazier points that held the original panes of glass in place. 

From there I stripped it the best I could only find that the wood was black. I'm not sure why that was. Maybe someone with a little more knowledge of old wood would be able to explain it for me. 

Eww!

I figured this was the best it was going to get so I crossed my fingers and hoped a nice sanding would do the trick.

 I said I hoped a nice sanding would do the trick. Eh, good enough.

At this point it was ready for paint and as you can see in the next picture I chose white.

 

This part was fun.

<Insert sarcasm here>

After beginning to distress the window by sanding it, the paint started to rub off like an eraser on paper. No bueno. I had used primer and paint in one and figured that was a bad idea and since it looked like crap I scrapped it and started over. 

I did not take another picture after stripping, sanding, priming and painting it again because that would have been pointless. The window was just white again. 

But here's what it looked like after another good sanding:

 Ooh pretty!

All it needed at this point were some mirrors and hooks. I'm so glad there's a locally owned hardware store near my house that custom cuts mirrors and glass. Three mirrors that were about 10 x 12 inches cost less than $20. Score!

And here's the final product again:

 Hi tiny girl! (My kitty)

Sorry the photos aren't spectacular. I had used my iPhone for most of them so that I could post them to Facebook for all my friends to see.

So what do you think? Would you want this in your entry way? Let's hope so because I'm making five more of them to sell. I have a few more paint colors that I found in the "Oops Paint" section at Home Depot that I plan to try out. I just know you're going to love hot pink, neon green and poop brown.

Just kidding!! 

I found a neat light green-ish color, an interesting purple-ish color that I'm not quite sure about and a pretty light blue. To be safe, I'll just start with white again. Everyone loves white, right?

Bye for now. 

Oh, and just for fun, I have another fun project that I just finished today. Let's just say it's not a window but I think you'll still like it. Especially since it looks WAY better than it first looked when I bought it from a chick through craigslist for $12.