A big design trend last year was the sunburst mirror. I’ve always been a fan of them, but never wanted to shell out the money for what some places were selling them for. So after looking up a couple different tutorials [like this one and this one], I decided that I’d just make my own. This way I don’t have to settle for the look of a pre-made one. There are tons of different materials that can be used to make these, but I went with the long, even and skinny look for the “bursts.” I’ve seen paint stir sticks, twigs, cedar planks, and bamboo skewers [the ones you grill with] used. I went with plain ol’ dowels.
The materials I used included: 4 packages of dowels, a six inch mirror, an embroidery hoop, and a hot glue with an extra package of glue sticks. I picked up all of the materials [from Hobby Lobby] + spray paint [from Home Depot] for whopping $24. And since I wanted to protect our wood floors, I put down newspaper when working with the hot glue gun. You can see all of the grocery specials from that week—whole pineapple was 2 for $6 that week. Haha.
After I glued the embroidery hoop to the mirror, I took the dowels and found a few center points and marked those out. It helps keep it the dowel spacing even and balanced. Corned beef brisket anyone?
Then you start gluing down the dowels [or whatever material you’re using] to the hoop/mirror frame. I made sure to line up the edge of the dowels to the edge of the embroidery hoop. Another option instead of an unframed mirror and embroidery hoop would be a small mirror that is framed [like one of these] and glue directly onto the frame. It gives you a bit more surface area to work with.
Halfway done gluing on the dowels…
Once you have all of the dowels glued on, spray paint both sides. I did the back side first. Be sure to tape and cover the mirror before spray painting the front, or you’d be out the mirror part of your sunburst mirror. Leave the inside of the embroidery hoop/mirror exposed though—you’ll want that to be spray painted.
If your mirror didn’t come with any type of hanging device you’ll want to attach one on the back. The embroidery hoop I bought came with two hoops and so the second one had the fastener that’s used to help keep you material pulled tight. I took that second hoop and glued it in around the backside of the mirror and other hoop. I then put a wire though the screw hole and hug it up that way.
My mirror has gone up in the guest bedroom [aka my closet/dressing room] over the dresser. The room is nowhere near being finished, but it did get a new paint color right before Thanksgiving. It’s a super soft, creamy white. I’m using reds, cream, chocolate brown and yellow to decorate the room. The yellow is the color for the decorative accents. You can see the bed’s red and brown duvet and quilt at the bottom of the picture. Ignore the blue vases…they’re normally in the living room but I made the mirror over the Christmas holiday so the vases were moved to the second bedroom. I may keep them there and bring in a couple blue accents here and there in the room as well. Not sure yet, though. And yes, I do have pictures of myself and others on display in the guest bedroom. I mean, who wouldn’t want pictures of themselves framed for their guests?? [insert sarcasm here]
Here’s more sunburst mirror looks for inspiration 🙂
—m.