Knock-Off Ballard Mirrors

Over the weekend I spruced up my mantle just a bit...it badly needed it.  In the midst of doing my daily blog-reading I came upon a blog that had re-done these Ballard mirrors for almost pennies...well not really but almost:

Aren't they puurrty?  The problem is that these babies sell for 230 buckaroos for just 2 of them online at Ballard's.  No way, no how would I spend that much for 2 mirrors.  That's almost half my car payment.  So, when I saw that another blog had re-done these on the cheap, I decided to follow suit.  So, I headed to Lowe's to get these 3 mirrors for $5 and some change each...totalling to a little over $17.  Then, I stopped into Wal-Mart and got a white eye-liner pencil and some white fabric paint which would be used to draw out my designs on the mirrors. 

I began by dividing the mirror in to 3rds horizontally by drawing 3 lines across.  I think they each came to about 12 inches apart.  Then, I made a line vertically completely down the middle of mirror.  For my diamond shapes, I made a dot 2 inches from each line and connected the dots which was pretty simple. 

Now you're gonna think I'm a little nuts-o...but you see the picture below?  You're probably asking what the heck is that.  Well, in order to make the curved part of my design, I had to find something that was curved.  And...the only thing I could find was off of my son's bouncer.  This thing holds the hanging toys that hang over his head while he's sitting in his bouncer.  You can even see the toys laying on my paper.  See...I told you that you'd think I was nuts.  Anyway...I got some scrap paper that I had laying around from some glassware I bought at Goodwill, folded it in half and drew out my curved arch.  It worked like a charm.

I unfolded it and wallah...it was perfect and the exact size I needed for my design (of course, I had to do a little measuring for it to fit perfectly between my diamonds).  I love his bouncer even more, now.  It not only keeps him happy but it helps momma with her projects, too.  Who knew?! 

Here it is unfolded and ready for me to trace onto the mirror.

Once everything was drawn on to the mirror with the pencil, I slowly went over my lines with the fabric paint.  This was-not-easy-at-all.  I couldn't draw a straight line for nothing, or a curved line for that matter.  It was definitely harder than I expected. 

But after some slow and tedious work I got'em done.  By the third mirror I was ready to be done!  I let them sit over night to dry and once the paint was dry I used a paper towel and windex to wipe off any pencil markings that was visible from my un-straight/curved tracing which wiped off super easy. 

And...here they are...aren't they puurty...homemade knock-off Ballard mirrors for less than 20 bucks!   

Here's a before:

And after:



I love how they make my mantle look really tall and long.  And the mirrors really open up the room.  It's very simple, just like I like it.  I even got a thumbs up from the Mr. (despite him pointing out my shaky lines)  :-)

~Jeni