Framing Out A Mirror That is Mounted On A Door

Let us talk about a mini makeover that involved a whole lot of hiccups. It was alllllll the way back in January that we chose that this mirror on our master bathroom door could stay (unlike the one on our guest bathroom door, which got the heave-ho since the person on the toilet could see THEIR WHOLE BODY in it). But we figured the bedroom mirror could stay (since it does not force you to stare at your reflection while on the porcelain throne) on the condition that we’d create a thicker frame around it to give it more presence so it looked less like one of those big flimsy $5 mirrors that you bring to college. Not that there is anything wrong with those (we were both quite glad to cart them off to school), but we like to think we have since graduated from that look. But yeah, even though this plan was hatched in January, it has taken us until September to in fact do it. Oops.

We are glad we kept it, since it has been quite functional (double-checking outfits, fixing hair, flexing – you know, the usual) but the basic plastic clips were not much to look at.

Having seen plenty of other bloggers upgrade their mirrors with trim (like Layla & Kevin, for example) we were confident that it’d be a fairly straightforward task (FYI, this is what I like to call “foreshadowing”).

First I took the door of its hinges so I could work with it laying flat. The basic plan was: remove mirror, reattached with glue (so plastic clips would not be in the way of trim), cut molding with miter saw, and glue to door around mirror. Plain, right?

Before removing the mirror I traced the outline with a red pen so we would be sure to glue it back on in the right spot. I did not care about marking the door since this part would eventually be covered by trim.

With the clips unscrewed and took out, the mirror came off no problem (though part of me secretly hoped it had already been glued in place).

We picked up this Liquid Nails Mirror Adhesive at Lowe’s for about $5. It is apparently designed not to damage the reflective coating on the back of the mirror (which is why we used it over other adhesives, which could cause visible-through-the-mirror marks over time). Oh but before we used it we sanded the back of the door where the mirror would be glued (since it recommended doing that to rough things up before gluing any painted surface).

Since it was kinda stinky, we moved our mirror-gluing operation into the sunroom where I happily got to squirting blobs of adhesive as I remembered the instructions suggested (hint: more foreshadowing).

With Sherry’s assist, we put the mirror in place, pressed it down and left it alone to dry for 72 hours.

At Lowe’s we also picked up some trim that looked made for this job (though I think it is in fact meant for the top of beadboard). The groove in it was ideal for laying flat over the edge of the mirror.

Well, long story short, after measuring and cutting all of the pieces (and simply moments before gluing it down) we stepped back and realized it truly was not much of an upgrade. At all. It simply looked even more like one of those low-cost $5 college mirrors. Oh, accidental regression – I enjoy how you sneak up on us.

So with about $10 in trim down the drain, I went back to Lowe’s and found some heftier stuff that still sported sufficient of a lip to sit nicely over the edge of the mirror. Instead of about an inch and a quarter of width, this trim was nearly three inches wide. We landed on that size because anything thicker would potentially run into the doorknob, but it was nearly twice as thick as the too-thin trim that we tried first.

We obviously hoped the mitered corners to match up with the beveled corner of the mirror. So to assist me find my cut lines, I placed a piece of painter’s tape along the line of the bevel to effectively “extend” my corner. Then I marked where I hoped to make my 45-degree cuts using my miter saw.

With all of my cuts made, I double-checked to make sure everything lined up nicely…

…and then broke out some heavy duty Liquid Nails to glue all of the trim in place. Normally I prefer nails or screws over glue, but I went out of my comfort zone on this one since screwing or nailing next to a mirror made me nervous and everything on the Liquid Nails tube insinuated that it could handle the job.

I squirted out a thin line of adhesive on each piece of trim (on the side that would sit against the door, not the mirror) and carefully laid all four pieces in place.

Simply to be sure nothing shifted during drying, I taped each piece down. Cannot be too careful, right?

Well apparently I could’ve been more careful. After letting the trim dry for a day (the mirror had set for 72 hours at this point), I eagerly reattached the door (keep in mind that we’d been living bathroom door-less for about four days thanks to the false start with the too-thin trim) and took a celebratory shower.

Perhaps it was the steam from the shower? Perhaps it was re-hanging the mirror too soon before things fully cured? Whatever it was, moments after I wrapped up get dressed after my shower – the mirror slid off the door, busting off the bottom piece of trim in the process. The other three pieces stayed in place, which thankfully kept the mirror from toppling over onto the floor. So the only damage to the mirror was a chipped corner that would be covered by trim anyway. But Sherry and I did nearly hyperventilate when we heard a crash from the bedroom and ran in to see what happened.

I did not take many pics of the “aftermath” because I was kinda grumpy about the whole thing. Not only did I have to redo everything (including having to scrape off all of the old glue), but I was not quite sure where I had gone wrong.

Well, re-reading the directions on the back of the mirror adhesive offered some clues. Like “Do not use this product without a permanent support system. ” Oops. Plus some parts about letting the glue set for a full week and applying it to the mirror back, not the door (though I doubt that second pointer made much of a difference since it gets on both surfaces when you mash them together) might have come into play too.

So in doing this a second time, I was determined to follow the directions. This time the adhesive was applied to the mirror… generously but in less large globs (Sherry called the first ones “cookie sized” but I’d describe these more as golf-ball-sized (and not as thick, so it could cure more easily). In addition to the blobs described in the directions, I criss-crossed some lines too, simply to be safe a crazed man who could not handle another mirror failure.

As for a permanent support solution, I was not about to re-install the clips since the point of this whole glue/framing method was to avoid them (and the trim would not look strong with big lumpy clips under it). So I improvised and carefully brought in some small finishing nails around the edges of the mirror. They went into the door pleasant and solidly, and the head provides a pleasant little rest/stop for the mirror. They might not work as a support solution all on their own (if there were not trim and glue also coming into play) but I was banking on them being sufficient to keep it from sliding as easily as it did after simply two days of setting without any other support going on.

So with the mirror re-glued and nailed in place, Sherry and I began to countdown SEVEN FULL DAYS of letting the glue set. Even though it meant a full week of a door-less master bathroom, it felt like a necessary sacrifice if I did not want to do this a third time. And that is how Captain Careful rolls.

On the seventh night (I feel like I am telling a bible story all of the sudden) I in fact stood the door up in the sunroom to do an overnight test (before putting the trim on again). To be extra safe, we placed the door on a big pillow so the mirror would have a soft landing if it chose to detach itself and slide down towards the floor again. Luckily, it did not. It passed the seventh night test! So the next morning I reglued all of the trim in place, let that dry flat on the floor for about five nights (more than three recommended in the instructions because we were out of town) and AT LAST put the door back on its hinges… simply in time for Clara to resume her go-to activity: gazing at herself and shouting things like “sah pretteh!” and “iss baby!”

After all of the trouble that went into the project, I will admit that it does not feel like the biggest and most life-changing payoff, but it is certainly an upgrade. The white trim on white door does not truly “pop” in photos, but in person it is a pleasant layered architectural detail that ties into the big quatrefoil mirror that we hung in front of the nearby over-the-sink window. And the goal of this project was simply to finish the raw mirror edges more nicely, not draw plenty of attention to it or anything (so painting it a color would simply make it compete with other things like the mirror over the sink which, no offense to our newly trimmed fella, is much more interesting). So we are kinda glad this update is of the subtle variety.

More than anything, I am simply glad to have the project successfully completed, to have some privacy returned to our bathroom and to no longer have to stare at those clear plastic mirror clips. Yep, now we can stare at more essential things… like the doorknob that needs updating (likely with a can of ORB since my wife is so smitten).

As for the total cost, the second batch of thicker trim was $12, so the whole cost of the project with mirror adhesive should be around $17 if you do not mess up and buy ten bucks worth of too-thin trim (which we hope to repurpose someday in some capacity…). Update: we simply learned that Lowe’s & Home Depot will take trim back (even if it has been cut, as long as it is over 12″). So here is hoping we can recoup the $10 that we spent on that too-thin trim.

Have you folks make any subtle changes lately? Or encountered an “straightforward” project that had more hiccups than you ever thought possible? I am glad to report that as of this posting, the door has survived five nights without falling down (even with a handful of steamy showers). Success! At least for now. We will keep you posted if things take a turn for the “ahhhh, I simply heard a loud crash in the bedroom.”