Glue-Gunning for Texture

While digging out the tomatoes from the case I purchased at the produce auction,
I came upon a catalog
used to ad more stability to the opening at the base of the box.

Lo and behold,
it was a "Country Door" catalog.

Oh, how I love the "Country Door" catalog,
but it stopped coming to my home some time ago
when they realized I was only a window shopper.

So I promptly sat down,
thanked the woman who had chosen to pack her extra tomatoes
in the lap of such a luxury for me!


I came upon this image...

Countrydoor.com

and forgot about tomatoes.

Something about these detailed mirrors beckons to me.

I saw several of them in the latest issue of Romantic Country as well
(a fabulous magazine gifted to me by my mother for my birthday
and devoured when it shows up in the mailbox).


I wanted one for my bedroom,
and decided to try to create the effect
using a plain mirror I had that fit perfectly in the space where I wanted one.

To begin the transformation, I dug out my glue gun,
a ruler and pencil,
and some paint.

(FYI: the red stripe is a streamer across the ceiling left-over from my daughter's birthday celebration,
not a "No Decorating Mirror" sign.)



I measured off how far I wanted each decorative segment to be,
which for this piece
was 1 1/2". 

Using my heated glue gun,
I then proceeded to make arches around the frame,
being sure to use an adequate amount of glue
and that the glue gun lightly pressed the glue onto the wood
to ensure good adhesion to it.

As you can see,
perfection with a glue gun is not my specialty;
but I figured when painted, the errors of my glue-gun doodling skills
would be more forgiving.



I then filled in the archways with the decorative image as follows:

(Step five starts at the top and proceeds in a downward motion,
which is shown completed in step 6.)

After completing the whole mirror
(I used approximately one and a half of the 10" long glue sticks),
I began pulling off the glue gun threads.

I set the mirror aside and went to bed,
partly because it was late
and partly because I wanted to be sure the glue cured well.

I chose a base-coat paint that I liked for my room
(any color may be used, of course)
and then carefully painted the whole thing.

I let this dry and then cure for several hours as well.


The white I chose for the top-coat was watered down slightly
(actually, I made mine too runny and I had to thicken it;
so be careful doing this step:
 just a teaspoon of water per 1/2 cup of paint should do it.)

After I painted a side,
I'd lightly wipe it off so that the under coat would slightly show through.

I wiped more off the inside margin.

I sealed it all with a coat of glossy Mod Podge.

The mirror helped fill the spot above my newly painted black and white cupboard

and I like the textured look it now has.

I am still waiting on a better lamp shade for my crystal lamp;

the glass globe is a temporary fix as it doesn't properly sit on the lamp.

I had experimented with the glue gun texture on a little storage box for my daughter

that was gummed up on the lid with wax or something else that wouldn't budge.

Of course, that box ended up being her colors...

I hope to share it soon along with her completed dresser.

But of course,

I was a bit selfish and wanted to show you my room project first.

Now I must be off to finish the last batch of tomatoes...

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