I hinted on Monday that I had something up my sleeve inspired by this magazine:

As soon as it came in the mail, I knew what I was going to do during my kids’ nap time. I sat down with a pen and began studying.

Do you ever do that? If you have trouble finding your “decorating style,” you might want to give it a try. Look at magazines, other houses, even your own home – and ask yourself what you love (and don’t love) about it. As you continue to “study” homes, you will eventually come up with a firm idea of what you want in your own home.

Several things caught my eye in this magazine. One is on the cover and throughout the magazine.

It’s a Limpet shell mirror. Beautiful, isn’t it? I loved it the moment I saw it on the cover. It’s currently on sale for $469. What a steal. Unfortunately, my monthly mirror budget is only $400, so buying this mirror was not an option.

Instead, I began thinking up other options. Hmmmm…I wonder if the dollar store sells shells? And hey, I have 2 square mirrors I bought last year at a yard sale.

First stop: Dollar Store. Where they had zero shells. I was in a hurry because my hubby & 2 kids were in the car, so I didn’t stop to ask anyone. However, I did come away with 2 bags of these:

During a different nap time, I decided to experiment to see what I could come up with.

Hmmm…that green frame will definitely need to come off. Luckily, one of my kitchen knives had just broken the night before and I had yet to get rid of it (or clean it, apparently).  Broken knives work wonders.

I slid the knife under the edge and it released pretty easily from the mirror.

I cut the cardboard (with the same broken knife) and then popped each edge off.

The cardboard and wall hanger came off  because it was all attached to the frame instead of to the mirror. That was fine with me because I’m not planning to hang the mirror.

I was concerned that the edges of the mirror might scratch a wood surface, so I went ahead and “piped” hot glue around the edges.

Then I started gluing rocks to the edge of my mirror.

There’s not a huge science to it. I didn’t want big gaps between my rocks, so I tested out different rocks to try and get a “snug fit” between the rocks.

When I got towards the end,

I placed the rest of the rocks on the mirror without hot glue, so I could fiddle around with them before they were stuck. That way, I wasn’t left with an odd-shaped empty spot on my mirror. It took a little bit of playing around, but finally I got a good fit.

 (My little girl had woken up at this point. There she is, playing with extra rocks.)

And that’s it!

I put it out in my living room to take some pics of it for this post. This will not be its’ final resting place, however. I’ll keep you posted.

See the reflection of my wall art from Walmizzle?

Here’s a shot of the full thing with me standing awkwardly in front.

So, it’s not a look-a-like by any stretch of the imagination. Only inspired by the dear folks over at Ballard. Either way, I’m rather pleased with my rock mirror.

By the way, if you haven’t seen it yet…I’m having a giveaway for the book, Organized Simplicity. Hurry over here and leave a comment to enter! I’ll announce the winner on Tuesday morning, March 20!

Have a fabulous weekend!
~Christa

 

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