Turning a Builder Basic Bathroom Mirror into a Leaning Floor Mirror

As part of our guest bathroom mini-makeover a while back, we decided to take out the large builder basic mirror and replace it with something smaller.

That left us with a large mirror that we could either break to get it to fit in our trash can, have picked up by the local ReStore, or repurpose. We decided on the third option…duh.

This project was super easy and would take a normal person only about a weekend to finish. The hardest part was probably getting the giant frame up the staircase.

We decided to use 2×12 lumber to add some height to the mirror which is what gives it that nice chunky look but it also makes it heavy as sin. I think we ended up having to buy 3 8ft lengths to get an overall mirror size of about 5×6 (the actual mirror part of the finished project is roughly 3×4).

We chopped the lumber to the sizes we needed and then Kyle put a few pocket holes in the back of each piece to secure it all together. We typically miter corners of stuff like this but in all honesty, it was just way easier to do the blunt cuts plus it gives it a little more of a rustic character (which I’ve learned from watching HGTV is basically realtor speak for ‘flawed’). After the frame was put together, we propped it up on a couple of sawhorses and I wiped on a coat of Early American stain to match the shoe shelves in the closet.

We let the frame cure a couple of days before hauling it upstairs where the glass portion was waiting. While Kyle had worked on assembling the frame, I took the time to glue several pieces of scrap lumber to the back of the glass. I made sure that these pieces extended beyond the dimensions of the glass – you’ll see why soon. These dried for a couple of days before we put everything together.

Once everything had plenty of time to set up, we used liquid nails to glue the frame to the glass. Since this was done on the floor of my craft room, we weren’t able to use clamps or anything to make sure everything was pressed together nicely, so I used a few heavy books and let gravity do it’s thing. Side note: I need to clean my craft room closet.

Hi, Kyle!

Otter working hard as Project Supervisor.

We let everything sit for another day and then stood the mirror up and put a few screws through the back of the scrap lumber and into the frame, just for a little extra security. This is why it was important for me to overlap the scrap pieces.

After that, all we had to do was slide it down the hall to the closet and set her in place. TA-DA!

Once more – before:

And after!