Frame A Bathroom Mirror In Under Two Hours
DIY a bathroom mirror frame to turn that ugly builder grade mirror with clips into a more modern design in under 2 hours.
This bathroom renovation so far has proven to be MUCH EASIER.
I still have a little PTSD when I walk in and see a floor missing or plastic hanging to protect the doorway. I am not sure when I’ll fully get over that wild nearly one year ride of a home improvement project. Crazy how much more manageable things are when you’re not doing any demo and just doing a phase one plan.
It should be noted that this bathroom has gotta be one of the most difficult rooms to photograph. You can’t get a full picture of what this bathroom is like because of its glorious, unphotographable angles. Lovely. So, you’ll just have to trust me with a lot of this stuff.
Anyhoo, as you can see here, we have one of those non-cute builder grade wall mirrors with the clips along the edges that is good for nothing. Well, not nothing.
It’s good for a super easy and budget friendly mirror frame project!
There are supposedly mirror frame kits you can buy with individual frame pieces you can put together with wood glue or liquid nails, but we didn’t want to go that route.
Since framed bathroom mirrors seem to be all the rage on Pinterest, we said “challenge accepted” and decided to go for a little DIY vanity mirror frame of our own.
DIY Framed Bathroom Mirror
Supplies:
*Some affiliate links may be used
- (2) 1x4x8
- (2) 1x2x8
- (2) 1x3x8 furring strip
- Stain color of your choice (We love Minwax Early American)
- Pre-Stain Wood Conditioner
- Rust-Oleum Polyurethane
- Compound miter saw (This isn’t the one we have, but this has great reviews and is a great starter option)
- Table saw (If you don’t have one of these, I recommend trying to borrow one so you’re not spending a ton. These babies ain’t cheap)
- OPTIONAL: Pocket hole driller and screws
Steps:
First, you’ll need to measure your existing mirror – length, width, and thickness including the wall.
For reference, our measurements here for the mirror frame are for ours which is 4 feet by 3 feet.
Using your table saw, rip down the 1×3 furring strips to the thickness of your mirror. Nail those pieces on all four sides of your mirror. The reason we did this was to offset the thickness of the mirror clips along the edge of the mirror.
Note: This is *not* your mirror frame. This is what the mirror frame *attaches* to.
Then you will cut each of your 1×4 strips – two 51 1/2″ long for the top and bottom pieces of your frame and two 39″ for the short side pieces – at a 45 degree angle using your compound miter saw.
You can go ahead and cut your 1×2 strips as well in the exact same way.
Once they’re all cut, lay them out in the middle of your kitchen floor to make sure they line up. Or I guess you can do this in a garage if you’re rich. Whatever. You guys all know that we don’t have a garage around here but are hoping to add one when we hit the lottery.
We could have done this in our driveway but since the concrete isn’t flat, it wasn’t an option for us since we were trying to line everything up perfectly.
Next, here is that optional part I was talking about up in the instructions.
We decided to do pocket holes in the back because we didn’t want any screws to show in the front. So, if you’re wanting to do it this way, this is when you’ll want to drill those holes and screw them together.
If not, you can screw them together in whatever way is easiest. Just remember if you’re making yours like ours, you’ll have a lip on the outside so you need to make sure your screws are sunk in all the way.
Next, just nail your outer edge to your mirror frame and you’re done with the building!
After you build, add your wood conditioner, stain, and poly.
The final step is to nail your mirror frame voila! A DIY framed mirror in UNDER 2 hours!
Want to know a secret on how we timed this little DIY project? Two words.
SVU Marathon.
Each SVU episode is 1 hour long and on Sundays, there is an all day marathon and we were able to get this done before 2 bad guys were fully caught and Olivia made a sassy comment to them.
Oh, ignore the red countertop. It’s going away HOPEFULLY today!!! But also look at the sneak peek of the bathroom vanity color! Eek! I am IN LOVE!
How did you attach the frame to the wall itself please? Not sure I picked up on that – sorry if I missed it above already.
No worries! We attached the frame to the wood we put around the edges. For the edge pieces under the frame, we screwed those into the wall. I hope that helps and makes sense!
Just came across this and we are using your post to frame our mirror. I’m still confused by how you attached it to the wall? I don’t understand the “under the mirror” part. Thanks!
You simply nail the frame to the pieces of wood that you added in the very first step! The frame actually doesn’t attach to the mirror OR the wall. It attaches to the pieces of wood we put on the wall first. Hopefully that makes sense!
This looks beautiful! Quick question… so there will be a small gap between the wood pieces covering the mirror, right? Because of the clips that stay in place? Has this been okay for cleaning/appearance? Can you see the space easily? I just want to make sure I’m understanding correctly. 😉 Thank you so much for your help!
The mirror does have a small gap around the perimeter the thickness of the clip but hasn’t been an issue for us at all! The other alternative would be to router out or rip out the bottom of the 1x4s to accommodate the thickness of the clips. Hopefully that’s helpful!
So since your furring strips are the thickness of your mirror and clips, does you finished frame sit the strips thickness off your mirror. Thanks for your ideas.
I meant does the finished frame sit the thickness of the clips off the mirror.
The mirror does have a small gap around the perimeter the thickness of the clip but hasn’t been an issue for us. The other alternative would be to router out or rip out the bottom of the 1x4s to accommodate the thickness of the clips. Hope that’s helpful!
Ooh, what a great update and I really love the front and how the stain really highlights the knots. It almost looks like it’s had that scorch technique applied.
That’s what we liked about it too! We didn’t plan on it, but gorgeous nonetheless 😉
I love how this turned out, and can’t wait to see your vanity!
Thanks, Cindy!! 🙂
I love that stain color. The frame turned out so pretty. Great job, guys!
We do too, we use it on everything! Thanks!
I can not believe the difference the frame makes! Such a smart idea to update a bath in a few hours.
Crazy how this literally looks like a brand new mirror but it’s not! 🙂
I followed your guide for our bathroom reno, I made the mistake of cutting my edge banding 51.5 to the tip instead of the base, that cost me a piece of wood.. ope! lol
We stained ours a dark color and absolutely love it! Turned a crappy old mirror into something pleasing to look at! Very helpful and easy to follow. Thank you!!
Stunning! We need to do this in our kids bathroom eventually.
It looks so good! I can’t wait to see the finished project!
meee either! hopefully it’ll come sooner than the last one
I have been dreaming of doing this with my bathroom mirror, but wasn’t sure exactly how to start. Thanks for all the directions and tutorial, Carmen.
TOTALLY go for it, Meegan!! Super super easy and worth it!
Oh!! The mirror frame is just lovely!! I want one for my mirror!!
thank you so much! I love how easy it was. I’m allll about the ease haha
I love the frame it really adds character to the mirror. I wanted to know how you mounted it to the mirror
Hey there, glad you love it! We mounted the mirror to the furring strips that you can see in the photo. We added the pieces of wood to the top and bottom to screw in to. Hope that makes sense!