Transform a Frame from New to Antique

When my darling bride-to-be friend asked if I could help her antique her large, new silver mirror for her wedding, I was thrilled to take on the challenge! She needed the mirror frame to look gold and aged -- its purpose to provide the reception's seating chart via beautiful calligraphy and compliment the gold, neutral, and blush pink tones of her wedding. In under two hours, we transformed her mirror from new to antique. So let's begin!

My friend brought over this large, silver mirror to my home. Completely new, out of the box.

I love the simplicity of the mirror, with beveled glass, straight lines, and pretty scroll detail.

Our first step was to tape the edges with blue painter's tape...

...and enjoy the reflection of the trees.

Next, we covered the mirror with two layers of newspaper and taped it down.

Now for the paint! In order to bring texture and life to the piece, we sprayed a light mist of oil-rubbed bronze spray paint over the entire frame. This dark layer underneath would give the gold a richer color than if we had simply painted gold over the silver frame.

After the oil-rubbed bronze had dried, we spray-painted gold over the entire piece. We kept spraying until the ultimate gold color had been reached.

In detail, here is the layer of oil-rubbed bronze paint over the new silver frame (above)...

...and here is the layer of gold over the oil-rubbed bronze (above).

To add surface texture, we scratched the frame with sandpaper. This allowed the some of the edges to appear worn with age as the oil-rubbed bronze came through the gold.

To enrich the gold color and provide lowlights, I scrubbed a rich dark brown acrylic paint into the crevices of the frame with a paper towel. This gave the frame a nice depth.

For highlights, I painted a light gold arcylic paint in random streaks across the flat surface. The result was a lime-wash appearance you would get in old, calcified wood.

And voila! A frame from new to antique! Paired with some of my household items in neutral and blush pink tones, this set-up gave us a idea of what her mirror would look like at the wedding.

We left the mirrored surface untouched as a pristine mirror would provide for easier reading of the seating chart.

Can't wait for my friend's wedding and to see our mirror masterpiece in action :)

Thanks for visiting Nora's Nest, and come again soon!

XOXO,