Watercolor Mirror

I wanted (for a very long time) to add some sort of mirror (or maybe a few) to the hallway upstairs, as there is no natural light directly in it, and it is incredibly dark.

No, seriously. This is with all the lights on in the surrounding rooms  also. In the afternoon, when it gets the most light coming in from the back windows. It's DAAARRRKKKK!

Just...something... to bounce some more light around and make it slightly less cave-like. But nothing I saw that i liked was under $100. I can do the same thing at lowes; show me a selection of any type of thing, and I'll immediately be drawn to the most expensive one on the board. What can I say? I have good taste. Or quirky taste. And manufacturers know it. And they play dirty.  So when i saw this pin, I knew I wanted exactly that and finally  had a way to get it on the relatively cheap.

Watercolor Knock-off mirrors

And it really is as simple as grab a mirror, some glass stain in whatever colors you want ($2.99 each at Michaels Glass Stain- plus you can nab the 50% off coupons all the time), some water and a dropper and go to town.

it also really helps to pay attention to which ones you grab- small bottles in hundreds of different colors often leads to mixed up shelves at the store. I MEANT to grab plain instead of pearlescent  in all colors and that pink was supposed to be red, but it worked out just fine.

two more in a smaller size and I think my hallway will be peachy

It helps to do one or two colors only each round and let them dry fully (about 24 hours) so you don't end up with too many areas where it all just blends together in a mush. And you end up with something along these lines-

Once it's dry, the colors will all be similarly pastel looking like the blue and purple. And I may go for some more before I decide it is complete, but you can certainly get the idea.
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aaannnndddd.....
I did opt for more color, and I had a d'oh moment (the green had decided to collect all in a thin line along the edge, which made it want to peel off easily, so I peeled and re-greened the one area, and tried to spread it out much further and more evenly. When this stuff dries, it feels vaguely rubbery... not quite sticky? not quite solid? The thinner you make it, the better, though it will take longer to dry. Not allowing it to run off the edges unchecked would have been a great idea too. Not that those areas look bad, in fact, the areas where I blew on it and drove it off the edge are some of the spots I think look best. BUT. I didn't consider it sticking to the box I left under it to catch drips. ( A razor blade took any cardboard and excess paint off easily, but still...duh.) The larger sections of color ended up looking better (in my opinion anyways) than small blotches so I enlarged each color area. And I may have wanted to check the orientation of the mounting hooks on the back before starting- I thought the blue would be the upper left... not so much.  So here it is, mounted in the hallway, looking all cute. :) I think, from the way the stain feels when dry, that cleaning these will best be done with lens wipes for glasses rather than any windex or the like, as that might take off bits I'd rather stayed on there.

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So I was googling about, and found the original company that sells these mirrors...and HOLY COW THEY'RE BLOODY EXPENSIVE! As in, made in France, for 495 Euros (aka 600 ish bucks!) The makeup compact size is about 45$. ACK! So very happy I made my own!!