Framing the existing mirror will give an entirely new look. Just glue frame to the mirror edges.

If you decide on a new smaller mirror, and the old one came off in one piece and is still in good shape, have any glass company cut it into strips or to a size you can use elsewhere in the house. Have them polish the edges so you won't cut yourself. Great for on backs of doors or framed for over a dresser or buffet.

To me it seems like framing the existing mirror would be a good option. I remember a post about that not long ago. I think smaller mirrors look nice in either smaller bathrooms or two of them over two sinks. My concern would be you'd have "fights" when more than one kid wanted to look in the mirror at the same time.

You can give the mirror away on freecycle.com or Craigslist. There are plenty of people who'll take it.

Your mirror is still in style.

We took large mirrors out of both of our bathrooms and opted for more decorative mirrors with frames. One had lost it's silvering and the other had a crack, so they weren't salvagable. For safety, we put duct tape in strips over the whole mirror so when we took it out it didn't break in a million tiny pieces. We then took them both to the dump. I like the look of our bathrooms better with the decorative mirrors.

Keep in mind if you do take the mirror out, you may have some sheetrock repair to do.

I like the idea of framing the mirror. If you do remove it in one piece you can donate it to a thrift store. They will even come to pick it up. Just seting it out by the curb with a 'free' sign is a good way to get rid of something too. If you have to break it up to get it down someone on freecycle or craigslist might want the pieces for crafts. I hate to see things go to a landfill.

Dear Premier...

You remind me of Esmé Squalor.

Here is a link that might be useful: Esmé Squalor

Not sure which way I'm going to go yet, but if I do frame it, are there any special instructions for doing that? Anything special I need to use to make the frame stick to the bathroom mirror?

springvillegardens - Does the sheetrock damage come from the mirror being glued to the back?

Laurie

I had saved this website on my favorites after reading that previous thread I mentioned. Hope this helps.

Here is a link that might be useful: Mirror Mate

we took out our mirror and I took it to the glass shop and had 1' cut off the long side. My DH and I then mounted it here...it now really lightens the room and accents the bowls.

Here is a link that might be useful: {{!gwi}}

The sheetrock damage could result from trying to pry it loose from the wall. Also when they install large mirrors they have these special hangers drilled into the wall and they will need to be covered. Could be some glue too. Ours also had a very thick paint line from over the years of paint build up, but we installed a new counter and had the back splash come up high enough to cover that.

When we removed both of our mirrors they both broke and we didn't want to leave broken glass laying around for safety reasons for our pets and children in the neighborhood - so they had to go to the dump. Also when giving something away such as glass, you have to consider the liability issue of someone injuring themselves with the product.

I am giving away some amber glass removed from our sidelight to a local stained glass artist and I have yet to get the person who I am giving it away to - to come and get it - sometimes you want to recycle but even free items are hard to give away.

We tried and tried to give our kitchen cabinets away and lots of folks said they wanted them, but wanted us to deliver them even when they had their own pickup. Finally we got some people to pick them up after storing them for over a year. Same with the bathroom vanities. They were all usable with all the hardware.

We have some left over thinset, that a local mosaicist is supposed to come and get and she hasn't shown up twice.

When you are destructing and constructing - sometimes in the interest of cost, timeliness and efficiency you have to dispose of stuff to the dump. The cost to reframe our mirrors would have been more than it costs to buy new ones and we have a budget to stay within.

Unfortunately we live 20 miles from the nearest city and it is hard to get folks to drive up here. Thrift stores won't come up here and we can't leave stuff on the curb because we are on a highway and the highway department won't allow it, as that too is a safety hazard.

We do take a lot of items to goodwill and give to local charities - but we call them in advance to be sure they will take the particular item we have.

I had a framed bathroom mirror that I swapped out recently; cutting and reframing would not have worked, so I donated it to Habitat for Humanity. It is good practice to call first to see if they will accept it.

Well, you can do like my many times cheapskate DH,,we've taken several down,,,one he broke into pieces and he put into the trash...I would have done differently. Another he had sized down because the new bath cabs are higher than the old ones and we didn't care about getting fancy mirrors for my sons bathroom,,glass place did that for cheap and replaced that bottom metal lip. Other's have great ideas too. If you do smash it, I'd advise putting it in a huge plastic bag before you break it and be careful. Interesting how husbands often times do things differently than we would have. Here I am thinking of safety etc. and he never thinks anything bad can happen. Guess that's why they need us....

Trailrunner, that's how we did part of ours. We had 3 bathrooms with mirror and our master bath had more than 15 linear feet with it being 4-5 feet tall, so that was about 60-70 square feet and then we had about 30-40 feet from the other bathrooms. In fact, one of the tile guys wanted one to take with him, so I gave it to him (none were at all damaged since they were held primarily with clips) and we had the mirror made for the DR and then used the rest in bookshelves as you have done. The glass company actually took them down, cut them and put a bevel on the one big one and installed the ones in the bookcase for $125 and they furnished the bevel and the labor, so I thought that was a good deal. An expensive legal document might have resulted, had my husband and I tried to do this together, without a professional involved. Marriage is fragile - handle with care. (:

I just looked at my note and it was 1 inch that we had taken off not a foot !! It looks so perfect behind the bowls. It was not attached to bathroom wall except by clips so was easily done. Contractor took down, DH and I carried to my truck , glass company carried in / out and cut. DH and I carried into house and mounted...price $3.00 ---looks like a million !!

"Here I am thinking of safety etc. and he never thinks anything bad can happen"

Oh Piper101,

I deal with this at least once a day in my home.
Didn't think anyone else had this little 'problem'.
Yes, different how they think, huh? lol

MsRose,

Personally, I love the big mirror look in bathrooms.
Maybe because I've only ever had very small bathrooms with just enough room for the itty-bitty medicine cabinets with mirror doors.
Would love your mirror!

If it were my mirror and I had removed it by just whacking it (using all the safety procautions possible) and it came off in pieces, I'd repair the drywall (Very simple repair since it would only be a section of wall, not a whole room) and add the nice, decorative mirrors I've been seeing all over the TV and magazines.
One sink, one larger mirror. Two sinks, each would get a separate mirror. Both would be nice enough that they would practically be focal points for the bathrm.

I would get that done ASAP so that I could get to the creative (read: FUN!) part I love to do and that would be to use the broken mirror pieces to create something ala mosaic.

Sooo many mirrored decor pieces out now on more upscale websites I've seen and the prices could choke a horse!
From mirrored night tables to lamps.
So, if you are asking what to do with the mirror should it not come off in decent pieces, I'd keep the pieces and create something fab-ooo, something unique, something special for my home.

Here's an idea I found on the web not too long ago (while looking for ideas to use my Bordello Bunny pieces and shatters that were once two trays).

{{!gwi}}
{{!gwi}}

msrose, here is the link to the past thread on here about the mirror framing subject:

Here is a link that might be useful: mirror thread

The big-mirror thing is not to my taste, but a very cute option I've seen done is hanging smaller framed mirrors right on top of the gigantic one. I've seen it a bunch of times on Horrible Ghastly TV (HGTV ;-)) but a few people over on the Bathrooms forum have also done it. The kind of mirrors that hang from wires work the best, because you can replace the wire with longer pieces of picture-hanging wire so they can hang from a hook mounted above the mirror. You can wrap the wire with ribbon to make it more attractive. For a more permanent installation, you can glue a frameless beveled mirror on top of the existing mirror with a mirror adhesive. This can look really spiffy.

I've also seen people glue a smaller, empty frame to the surface of the mirror to "break it up" a bit - that can look great. Paint the back of the mirror black and attach it with silicone marine adhesive, taping it into place until the glue sets. Or you can hang it as above with fishing line or picture-hanging wire.

Thank you so much for all the tip and links. I've been gone all day so I'm just getting back here. I'm not sure if this is normal or not, but it looks like the plastic clips on mine are coming out of the ceiling. Is there anything I can do about that?

{{!gwi}}

Laurie

It just means there wasn't wall space above the mirror to put the clip on the wall, that's all. No big whoop. If you trim out the mirror with molding you won't see it - if you use the hard-foam or pine molding you can "carve" out where the clips go with an exacto knife. (Just make sure to paint the back of the molding black so you can't see it reflected in the mirror.)

I'm just trying to figure out how I would put the molding on with that in the way?

Laurie

I didn't read all the posts so I hope this doesn't come as a duplicate or contradicts anyone. On Carter's new show, (you know the cutie!!), he put 2 smaller wood frames over the large mirror and gave the impression that 2 smaller mirrors were sitting on top of the larger mirror. I hope that makes sense. If you go to HGTV web site and look up his past episodes you'll see photos.

I'm with brutuses, I'd add small frames on top of the current large mirror. Or just one over the current mirror above the sink and a piece of art or glass floating shelves to the left side for pretty bottles of bath salts and such.
I also thought about masking off an area above the sink and frost or etch the rest.
Or even check your local glass store or home builders supply stores for narrow strips of beveled mirror to frame you current mirror with. There are so many different ways you can dress up your current mirror. If you want more ideas, just say so. I'm full of them. Or full of something anyway. ;^)

windypoint

Not sure I understand that comment. mrsrose indicated she was going to leave the mirror until she saw smaller ones being used in magazine spreads. The implication (to me, anyway) was that she wanted to change it because smaller mirrors seemed more "in" now because that's what she is seeing in the mags.

I personally love the larger mirrors because small ones are never at the right height (high for DH, low for me) and bigger ones mean we can use more of the counter space for doing things.

Robin

Robin,

It's okay, I understood windypoint's comment :)

Yes, you were right that I was thinking the smaller mirrors are the "in" thing, but y'all are making me rethink that. I'm thinking I may just try framing it instead. I just need to decide for sure before I rewallpaper the bathroom.

Laurie