Mirror mirror on the wall

We had a little problem in the nursery, well actually two problems that we solved with a DIY'd mirror. Our house is full of "charm" as they call it and one of the most charming rooms of all is our now nursery.
Problem 1: No window! One of the previous owners decided to make the master bedroom bigger and add a walk-in closet. They built the closet on the back of the house where the window to the nursery was thus closing off that window. The bigger master bedroom also meant a smaller second bedroom, which is why it's perfect for a little nursery, well, except for the no window part.
Problem 2: Funky, uneven built-ins that dont make any sense. Some people might like these little guys, but I loathe them. They aren't deep enough to put books in and dose anyone else notice that they are not the same size? Im not sure what the purpose is or was for these guys and I tend to think they were not original to the house, but you never know. Ok, I dont have a good picture of them, but you will see them later on...in this same post, but I would be revealing a secret if I showed you that picture now.

Solution for both problems: A window mirror built by handy dandy Jeff himself. The reason we had to build a mirror is because the dimensios needed to cover the built-ins were so unusual. Also, as we started looking around for mirrors, we realized that they are really expensive. We also thought about asking my aunt and uncle, who sell beautiful mirrors at the Orange County Swap Meet, for a custom fit, but they recently gifted us with a beautiful mirror for our bathroom, so I couldnt bear to ask for another one. Also, their mirrors are top notch, so wven with the family discount, they would be out of our price range. So, it was time to get creative.

Searching the blogesphere I came across this diy project that I thought we could possibly pull off (by we, I mean Jeff).
Lindsay from Living with Lindsay built this Pottery Barm knock off for only $60.


The original from Pottery Barn costs $700..whoa, go Lindsay.


Jeff's version, while not as refined (in true Jeff fashion, he just slapped on what we had laying around the garage) only cost us about $25, but like I said, we had all the lumber on hand. We basically paid for two packs of these 12 inch mirrors from Ikea that cost $6 each.

Another $12 or so dollars were spent on a hinge for the mirror (more on that in a bit.)

This is how it turned out:
please ignore the fat lady taking the pictures and the dirt on the mirrors. For some reason, I havent felt the need to clean those yet.




So, problem number one is fixed because this mirror mimics a window and the light just jumps across the room. You almost forget that there isnt any real light in there.

And remember the built-ins I talked about. Well, they are nicely hidden now, but still accessible thanks to a hinge installed on the mirror making it a door. Now I just need to find a use for those things. Can you see how weird they are?



Jeff accomplished this project in like 2 hours. He was so quick that I dont have a tutorial for you or any in progress pictures. But the Lindsay mentioned above has a very nice tutorial, so I suggest you check it out if your in the mood to build an awesome mirror.