Take me to the Steps

This modern mid-century sunburst mirror is by far my favorite DIY I’ve ever made! It’s easy and cheap to make; it takes about an hour and can cost $10 or less. I love it so much!

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Project Steps

Prep your mirror

Plug in your glue gun. Read the instructions for how long it needs to warm up (mine takes about 5 minutes). Clean your mirror of any dust. Then tape around the interior of the mirror and place a trimmed piece of cardboard to protect the mirror when you spray paint it.

Next, plan out your zip tie placement before you start gluing. You can follow my design or create your own.

Glue the zip Ties

Gluing the zipties
Squirt a small drop of hot glue onto the head of the zip tie and press it down on the back of the mirror.

Note: I found it difficult to hold the glue gun and the zip ties and keep the mirror steady at the same time since the glue had already dried by the time I put the glue gun down and picked up a zip tie. So a helper with second pair of hands is useful. Alternatively, you can keep your glue gun standing up to the side and squirt out the glue without picking it up.

Row 1: Place the smaller zip ties all around the inner lip on the back of the mirror.

Gluing the first row of zipties

After you finish, clean up all the little glue hairs left behind.

Row 2: Place the longer zip ties right behind the first row, every 3 or so.

Adding the second row of zip ties

Row 3: Place longer zip ties further toward the interior of the back of the mirror, so that their tips will lie in between the first and second rows.

Tip: After placing all the zip ties, I added more hot glue over rows 1 and 2 and where row 3 intersected at the edge of the mirror. This ended up being a good ideas since a few weeks later one zip tie from row 3 came loose, but didn't fall off since I had glued all rows together at the edge. I just put a dab of hot glue on the loose one, and it was as good as new.

Remove any little cobwebby glue before spray painting.

 

Add some gold

Now you can spray paint the cardboard and zip ties. Be sure to work in a well-ventilated space.

Spray painting the zip ties gold

Following the directions on the can, spray the back of the mirror and allow to dry. Then flip the mirror over and spray the front. I used one coat on the back and three on the front, but it’s up to you.

Once your paint is dry, remove the protective cardboard and tape, and admire your sunburst!

Make Things Bling

Blinged out Vespa with the gold sun burst mirror mounted on it

Of course you could hang this on your wall, but I thought it would be more photogenic for me to bling out my Vespa. I don’t wear gold jewelry, but now I want to spray paint everything gold!