Inspiration: Painting a Mirrow Frame

I just recently purchased a wide black framed mirror. I thought I would put it in my foyer.


But it just didn't seem to work all that well. (I also decided I needed to paint the foyer and it is now a soothing grey. More on that later this week (I hope.))

I spray painted it silver. That was ghastly, so then I painted it grey. Then, I painted it yellow and grey, mixed together. I didn't like that, so I started sanding it off. Then, I realised I hadn't a clue what I was doing.

So, after spending quite a bit of time looking at Pam's fabulous projects at Be colorful and following her links, I was reminded of my love for MacKenzie-Childs.

I went searching for some inspiration. I found it.

Here is a gorgeous mirror, called Bosa Nova.



I am, unfortunately, a literalist. I couldn't see how to translate this design to my own mirorr's profile which is this:

narrow, narrow, wide, narrow, beaded.

So, I went looking around their site some more and found the tile.

Oh my. Are you ready for some serious eye candy?

Right. Meet Madison.

stripe with dot, solid, square lattice, solid.

I love how sweet this is. The colours remind me of a candy shop. It would be easy to do, too. (Everything from the inside pinky-orange line inwards would be omitted.)

This is Aalsmeer.

Stripe, solid, trellis with dot, solid

I love the trellis. I love the colours.

But I do like checks. I have no intention of getting rid of my checkerboard tiled kitchen floor, either.

This is Torquay.


I'm not actually fond of the colours in this--nor could I even come close to replicating the detail. But I do like the patterns: a yellow dot on a white ground, a stripe, then the narrowest of a solid, checkerboard (maybe with a pink dot in the middle of the white, maybe not) then a solid yellow. That could work.

Or, I could eschew colour altogether, like the first image above. Meet the Courtly Check (which, by the way, is FULL of colour. My version, alas, would not be.):

solid, solid, checkerboard, solid. (How easy is this?)

I'd change the gold to silver, though. And, I like the idea of making one of the narrow outer bands a stripe:

solid, stripe, narrow solid, checkerboard, solid, and those dots! I love the dots!

This may just be the best yet:
Outer narrow band: solid black
Inner narrow band: stripe
I could sneak in the narrowest of silver border
Wide bit: checkerboard.
And the the narrow bit could be silver yet again before we get to the silver and black on the innermost rim of the mirror which I have.

And yet.
And yet....
I'm not entirely sure I want to do this.

Should I?