Our bedroom was one of the first rooms we tackled when we moved into our house last fall. I knew from previous experience that it makes such a difference to end every day in a space that feels “done” even if there’s a to-do list a mile long for the rest of the house. Plus the bedroom was actually pretty easy — with some fresh paint and strategically-placed DIY accessories, we went from bland and depressing to what I like to call our “sophisticated cave”:

Where we started:

And now:

But of course, no room is ever “complete” in my world. First of all, we want to add some more color — we’re planning on a turquoise and orange quilt that my mom is making for us as a wedding gift (she’s a very talented quilter), and I want to layer in some additional colorful accents over time (beyond just clothing strewn across the floor).

And second of all, the mirror in the last photo is not the most functional or aesthetically-pleasing. I took it off the inside of the closet door when we painted and just leaned it up against the wall, but Sam is always asking when I plan to hang it up. (I guess he wants to be able to see the top of his head?) I didn’t want to hang it though, I had grand plans to build a frame for it to create a real leaning floor mirror.

Well today I’m proud to report that I finally built that frame. And even better, it’s a step towards adding a little more color to the room, too!

Originally I’d been thinking that I’d build a more traditional wood frame, like this:

But then I came across this mirror, and loved how colorful it was.

I decided to use this as my inspiration, but build my own variation. I started by buying four 5/4″x2″x8′ boards at Home Depot, which I had cut to be 76″ long. The mirror is 60″ tall, and I thought that 8 inches overhang on either end would look about right. I also bought three 8′ lengths of 1″x2″ pine strips. I also picked up a small container of “Golden Pecan” Minwax wood stain.

What did I do with all this? Well first, I lined up my four 76″ boards side-by-side. I quickly realized that one of them was really warped (the second-to-the-right in the photo below), which obviously I should have noticed in the store. Such is life.

I figured I’d be able to bend it into shape more or less with the plan I had, though. I played around with which side of each plank was showing, trying to minimize any crazy coloring or man-made markings (though some of this can be sanded away). Since I knew that much of it would end up being covered by the mirror plus I would be staining it, I had a lot of flexibility and didn’t feel the need to buy the nicest looking wood.

Then I whipped out my orbital sander, and gave all of them a good sanding along the front, sides, and top and bottom. I didn’t need to get it entirely smooth for my purposes, but just remove any loose splinters and any markings that I didn’t want.

Next up was attaching them to one another. When I had the boards cut at Home Depot I saved the scrap pieces that were cut off, and they turned out to be the perfect length to lay width-wise across all four boards. I flipped the four boards over — making sure to keep them in the order I wanted — and then attached three cross pieces along the length of the wood with four screws per cross piece.

This is how I reduced the warping of one of the boards — with cross pieces along the top, bottom, and middle, I was able to force the warped board into shape more or less. It isn’t perfect, but I figure that’s all part of the rough charm I’m going for.

Next it was time to paint some colorful designs. Rather than the “V’s” down the whole thing like my inspiration image, I went for groupings of diagonal stripes at the top, middle, and bottom. I used craft paint I already had on hand in various shades that I thought would look good together and tie into the future quilt, using painters tape to create segments and then filling them in with alternating colors.

I had to do two rounds of this, since where I wanted colorful stripes next to each other I had to let one stripe dry first before taping it off and then painting in the space around it with another color. I didn’t bother painting across the full width of the boards except at the very top and very bottom, since I knew the mirror would cover up the whole middle.

I wanted to create a more finished look, which is where the 1″x2″ pine strips came in. I used them to frame out the planks, putting a long piece along each side and a shorter piece along the top and bottom. I used the table saw to cut them to length, with each longer piece requiring most of the 8′ length and the two shorter pieces cut from a single 8′ strip. The long pieces of the framing were the same lengths as the planks, while I cut the top and bottom pieces to reach across the whole width of the planks plus overlap the framing strips along the two sides. I didn’t bother to miter any corners, since I was going for a rougher look.

I attached the long ones first, just hammering them in with finishing nails. To make it easier, I clamped the whole thing down along one side while I hammered into the other so it wouldn’t slide around.

I also started the nails on each end so that they were just protruding from the framing before beginning to hammer them into the planks, which made it much easier to hammer them in the rest of the way.

Some of the strips were a little warped, but I was able to hold them in shape while I hammered in the nails and thus forced them to stay straight.

Next I stained the whole thing with my Golden Pecan stain and a paint brush (excluding the middle where it wasn’t going to show), which I let sit for 15 minutes and then wiped with a cloth to remove any unabsorbed stain (per the directions).

I liked the stain a lot, but wanted it to be a bit darker so for the second coat I mixed my own blend which combined the Golden Pecan stain with just a little bit of some “English Chestnut” Minwax stain that I had from a previous project. This gave a richer tone. I should note that the stain doesn’t really soak into the painted sections, so I didn’t have to worry about these darkening too much — when I wiped with a cloth, pretty much all the stain sitting on the painted areas came right up.

Here you can see the three tones: the unstained wood in the center, the wood with just Golden Pecan along the top edges, and the darker mix along the bottom as I started to apply it.

Again, I let it sit for 15 minutes and then wiped off any excess (I could have let it sit for less time before wiping if I wanted it to dry a little lighter).

I let it dry over the course of a day (I did the final coat at 6am before work and then returned to the project when I got home at 9pm), and then the final step was attaching the mirror. I’d been laboring over the most secure way to do this (what glue to use?!?), but then saw that my inspiration project did a genius thing: she just used the original wall-mounting clips to securely attach the mirror to the front of the frame. So that’s exactly what I did, since I’d been hanging onto them since September.

Carrying it up the stairs from the basement was a two-person job since it’s quite heavy and tall. And here it is, in its final resting place!

I’m quite enamored! I love the polish the the framing adds, and the colors are perfect for the room and for our tastes.

All told the supplies (excluding the mirror and the paint and stain I already had) cost about $30. In terms of time, it took me a few hours one afternoon, and then 30 minutes for the second coat of stain and another 30 to attach the mirror once that was dry. It would probably take you a little less time if you chose not to do it the day after running a marathon, since you would be significantly faster on your trips up and down the basement stairs than I was. Sometimes my hobbies don’t play so well together….

(Sharing at Link Party Palooza, June Before and After, One Project at a Time, Tip Me Tuesday, Weekend Re-Treat Link Party, Remodelaholic, Think and Make Thursdays, and DIY Showoff)