Mirror makeover

The last few times I went to Garland Thift, I looked at a certain mirror. I don't know why, but I kept going back to it. I loved the shape of it but wasn't sure about the old-looking glass (I don't do shabby chic, and I had no idea how much it would cost to replace).
Eventually, though, the mirror went to half price ($12) and I decided that it was a sign. So I brought it home to the losefast house. Here is its kind of sad-looking before.


I went to Home Depot and bought some of the sample sizes of paints for $2.50 a pop. The colors I got were white and Distant Thunder. I painted the whole frame gray, then did a TON of taping off, and painted the middle of the frame white. I was thinking about putting some poly on to make it shiny, but I got impatient and just hung it up, and I like how it looks.


The little bench is from the thrift store, re-covered in a black and white stripe. The pink pillow was a silk sweater that I wasn't wearing, but thought my bench should have an opportunity to. The neon colored pillow was made of fabric remnants from Crate and Barrel Outlet (it's 99 cents per pound) and used some stuffing I cannibalized from a different pillow.


I haven't replaced the glass, but I may in the future. For now, I'm leaving it in its slightly cloudy state. We have a few pieces of Ikea in here and I thought something needed to be not completely shiny and new.
Here's a close-up:


Ethan said that the combination of the gray and white mirror and the striped bench looks a little Mad-Hatter-Alice-in-Wonderlandy. I agree. and it makes me happy.

We're still waiting on the Expedit 5x5 bookshelf to come in at Ikea so that our books can sit on something besides the floor, and the office can be officially finished. But in the meantime, we are already using the room SO much more now that we both have a large and clean work surface.