I think for that price you could get someone to make a frame for you. we had the same problem with our vanity mirrors, getting the right size, we had to buy the mirrors and then have our cabinet maker make the frames. I sprayed them myself. We got the two frames 24x42 and mirrors for about $300. We live in Canada too. The cheapest way is to go to HomeSense and buy a new mirror if you can find the size you need, you cant beat the prices there.

If you ask in the Bathrooms forum, a couple of people over there have done it. They seem satisfied.

I used MirrorMate for my master bathroom and love the look. They make a quality product but I hate to hear that it is cost prohibitive for you. I am in the U.S. so the shipping was pretty reasonable.

I have used a cabinet maker in the past and that should work well for you. If you can paint them yourself (like roseabbey did) that will keep your cost down. I found that paying my cabinet maker to build and install and a painter to finish was significantly more expensive than purchasing from a specialty company.

Here is a link that might be useful: MirrorMate

If you're handy with a mitre saw, you can buy moulding at your lumber supplier and frame it yourself.

The tip I can share is to be sure to paint the backside of the moulding black, because part of the back will reflect out.

We did what Maddielee did in our last home MBath addition. I second the paint the back. Used regular trim molding.

When we remodeled our bathroom we kept the large mirror and the tub. Everything else was new.
I turned the mirror 90 deg so that it reached the ceiling. Then build a simple wood frame around it. search the bathroom forum for the word bling to see photos.

I'm thinking of doing the same thing in my GB.
When DS built her home, she had a cabinet maker route the back of frame molding so that it fit snugly on the mirror. My mirror has an open wall on one end so the edges of the frame would need to fit flush to the wall.

Right now I'm checking out framed mirrors and hope I can find one that fits. If not, I guess I'll be practicing with my son's router!

My very handy husband frames out our bathroom mirror. Wow, what a differenct it makes.

russellmackenna.com might inspire you. I bought a lovely mirror from them for our bathroom.

I've done 3 bath mirrors myself with molding from HD. No miter cuts necessart, as I bought 4 rosette blocks for each, and cut 4 pieces of fluted molding. I did 1 black distressed and 2 cream colored with some drybrushing.

We had new tile and new sinks/faucets installed in our very 80's looking master bath. I kept seeing mirror mates and also the framed mirrors done by G'webbers. So, we bought molding and the rosettes and the glue. Dh cut the molding, I stained it medium dark and used a little gold craft paint to highlight. The glueing to the mirror was a pain. But we got it done. DD came over and told me the whole thing looked dated. This was hard to take as she is usually very complimentary. After a few weeks, I had to accept that it did indeed still look dated. So I begged DH to take down the whole thing and we replaced with two copper metal mirrors from Pier One. Should have just done that in the first place....
But maybe without the stain.........?

Red

anyone have pictures of the frames they made?

Here's ours. When we updated the bathroom everyone, and I do mean everyone, told me to lose the mirror but because the bathroom's an inside room with no natural light I wanted to keep it. The transformation with the frame was awesome. My husband built it with trim and I can attest that it was difficult to put in place but he did it! The lighting is yucky, sorry.

Too funny, I didn't notice the shirt hanging there and I'm too lazy to go and take another without it, oh well!

Here is my framed mirror. Used the same wood for the vanity for a monolithic look.

Thanks for the advice & pics, they look great! I was at Home Depot today and saw a molding that had a little "L" to it that would wrap around the mirror. The only thing is that it is quite plain, but I will buy a piece and see what it looks like. I would paint it a dark chocolate or black, I think. We'll see how fast I can get this done......blizzard today in my part of the world!

Am I the only person that likes the mcm look of the big ol' mirror without the frame?
Master Bath:

Hall Bath:

Tile is original...heck...everything but the PAINT and the hardware is original...

;^)

Hi, to those that have bought molding and framed a mirror, how did you go over the mirror clips? I was thinking maybe chipping or planing off the molding back that goes over the clip???

I've been thinking of doing this in my master bath. I like looking into a big honkin mirror while getting ready.

Rhoda at Southern Hospitality blog framed hers and gave instructions and photos. With help, she took the clips off and glued the mirror to the wall. I don't really want to do that and am trying to figure out a way to put the trim right over the clips.

Hoping someone above did it right over the clips? Is this possible?

Here is a link that might be useful: Southern Hospitality Blog

Construction adhesive, straight to the mirror. No problems for two years. We didn't go close to the edge because I was concerned (just my concern, nothing research-based) that it might affect the silvering of the mirror.

I just had to repost the pictures taken with a different camera mode, better lighting. Hey, I even moved the shirt to the iron pile. In case anyone cares, the actual wall paint color is best represented in the mirror reflection in the top photo.

>Is this possible?

Sure, it's possible. That's what mirrormate does: you map out where the clips are and send that info to them and they cope out the back to fit over them, but there's no reason why you couldn't do it yourself, too. It would be fiddly work, but totally doable.

Same for my MirrorMate experience. I sent them the location info on my clips and they took care of it. But as writersblock said, if you are thinking about doing this yourself you can easily account for the clips too.

pharaoh and sorriso,

Great work! very impressive. Two amazing bathrooms!

Thank you for the compliment mary b. I'm going to acknowledge the wealth of information available on the GardenWeb forums and the generosity of its users.

See the niche in the wall? I had pulled an inspiration photo out of a Better Homes and Gardens magazine but when I went to actually use it, of course I couldn't find it. I posted on the bathrooms forum to see if anyone had it--it was YEARS old--and someone did, scanned it for me into the thread; awesome!

sorriso,

That is a testament to the helpful folks that you find here! Amazing!

Sorriso, do you still have the niche info or the thread/scan that you could share here?

If the mirror isn't glued to the wall, you can always replace it with two mirrors from Hobby Lobby (they're 50% off during at least one week of the month). We did that in our bathroom in our old home and what a difference it made!

duchamp, I checked my clippings, I didn't save it and the post is so old it's dropped off the bathroom forum.

Are you looking for how to build a niche (my husband just built it to my specification for overall height and height from the floor between the studs in the wall) or just the inspiration photo?

It wasn't a "how to," just a photo which I ultimately adapted because I couldn't get it to work for me. I had the general concept but I couldn't recall how the glass shelf was supported so that it wasn't obvious, that's why I wanted the picture; I wanted to do it "right." The inspiration photo's magazine rack was hmmm....made with painted strips of wood, more country I think and I knew that wasn't going to get made and found the Pottery Barn rack for a great price on eBay. It was just easier and I like the final result better.

duchamp, I checked my clippings, I didn't save it and the post is so old it's dropped off the bathroom forum.

Are you looking for how to build a niche (my husband just built it to my specification for overall height and height from the floor between the studs in the wall) or just the inspiration photo?

It wasn't a "how to," just a photo which I ultimately adapted because I couldn't get it to work for me as it was. That was a bit stressful initially because I wanted it to be just that way, but I realized I could make it my way. I had the general concept but I couldn't recall how the glass shelf was supported so that it wasn't obvious, that's why I wanted the picture; I wanted to do it "right." The inspiration photo's magazine rack was hmmm....made with painted strips of wood, more country I think and I knew that wasn't going to get made and found the Pottery Barn rack for a great price on eBay. It was just easier to pop the purchased rack in and I like the final result better.

I purchased a tempered glass shelf cut to my dimensions online, I'm not sure if the inspiration photo used tempered glass but I thought it would be safer even though I don't have kids running around. When it first was installed all I could notice was how the greenish tint to the glass edge clashed with the green paint on the wall, I don't notice it anymore. We ended up supporting the shelf (because I never could figure it out from the picture) with small, square dowels painted to blend. Again, I had had a different thing in mind with hardware but I guess I was dreaming that that existed so we needed to adapt. It's funny how the project caused so much fuss at the time because I wanted perfect and with all the adaptations I thought I was going away from perfect but of course in the end, it's perfect!