Guess what time it is ?? 🙂  I am so excited to share with you this DIY challenge I can’t stand still.  It’s the first Wednesday of the month which means time for a DIY challenge.  This time of the year we are all busy getting the last bit of summer enjoyment before school starts, so most of my friends could not participate in this month’s challenge, hopefully next month we will all be together again to bring you more wonderful DIY inspiration.   I am posting all of my friend’s links to their DIY challenge below at the end of my page.

This month I decided to have our group make a sunburst mirror.  YES….I am just as excited as y’all are on seeing what this group brought to the table.  I for one can’t wait to share you my creation.  Oh…I can’t wait…… let’s get to it.

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Here is my tutorial on my sunburst mirror.  This isn’t a quick DIY, but the results are so rewarding !!

It took me some time to find the right mirror.  I found the perfect mirror on the 75% aisle at Hobby Lobby.  It was regularly $79.99.  It was smooth sailing after I found the mirror.  It is 22 inch and very heavy.  The back of the mirror says DO NOT HANG WITH WIRE.

The next thing I had to do is figure out how large I wanted the sunburst.  I didn’t want to use the paint stirs or the shims like I have seen on Pinterest.  I wanted wider planks on mine.  So I decided to go to Home Depot and stroll their lumber to see what I could use for my sunburst planks.  I didn’t find wood that was thin enough to use for my planks, but I did find some underlayment used for flooring that was the perfect thickness.  I purchased a sheet of 4′ x 4′ it ran $11.93 a panel.

I had one of Home Depot’s salesman cut four measurements for me from the one piece.

• 16 inch
• two – 13 inch
• two 3 inch pieces

If you remember I lost photos due to not having a memory card in my camera, this is the other project I was working on…..I lost the first few photos. 🙁

I have my mirror and my material.  It’s time to cut the planks from the board the nice fellow cut for me at Home Depot.  Here are the pieces we cut from the 4 x 4 underlay pieces.

• from the 16 inch piece we cut  TEN – 3 inch x 16 inch plank
• from the two 13 inch pieces we cut  TWENTY– 3 inch x 13 inch plank
• from the two 3 inch pieces and some left over pieces we cut  TEN – 3 inch x 10 inch plank
• left over pieces we cut TWENTY – 3 inch x 5.5 inch plank

I marked all the measurements, Mr. Tip helped me cut the planks out, all 60 with a circular saw.

Once we had all the planks cut, I sanded the edges smooth with a sanding sponge.

Once they were all smooth, I took a makeup sponge and applied Minwax English Chestnut stain to all the planks.

After all of the planks were stained, I added white dry brushing to all of my planks except ten of the 13-inch planks and the twenty 5 1/2 planks, they will stay stained.  If you want to know more about how I dry brush you can check that tutorial out here HOW I DO MY DRY PAINTING TECHNIQUE.

• Very light dry brushing on all the 16 inch planks
• A medium dry brushing on ten of the 13 inch planks
• Ten – 13 inch stained planks
• Heavy dry brushing on all the 10 inch planks
• 20 stained 5 1/2 inch planks

Building the sunburst

1.  I took the 16 inch planks, 5 of the 13 inch dry brush plank and 5 of the 13 inch stained planks
2.  Attaching the 13 inch planks to the 16 inch planks with Power Grab

•  apply a stream of Power Grab on the back of the 13 inch plank, making sure it is on the left side of the plank  NOTE:  when gluing the planks make sure you glue the planks the same way on all of your planks.  All to the left or all the right.  Very important.  I glued mine all to the left.

• Turned the plank around and glued it to the front left side of the 16 inch plank.  I kept the 13 inch plank 1 inch from the right side of the 16 inch plank.

I had two groups.

• 5 long plank with a dry brushing plank
• 5 long plank with a stained plank

I did the same thing with the other ten 13 inch plank with the ten 10 inch white planks.

Once I had them glue. I used two of my Dollar Tree clamps and flipped them over to dry.

 PREPARING THE MIRROR

My mirror’s frame is silver, I am painting the frame with bronze paint to warm it up.

I turned the mirror around so I can mark center lines with chalk.  One down and one across.  This will give me a guide to where the first four planks should go.

I also wanted to make a line for a guide to apply the planks to the mirror.  I made an inch mark all the way around the mirror.  This will give me a guide to keep all my planks even.  I will add them to the mirror making sure touch this line.

ADDING THE PLANKS TO THE MIRROR

I placed my planks in 4 groups.

• long plank with a stained piece
• long plank with a dry brush piece
• stained medium plank with a short piece
• medium dry brush plank with a short piece

Starting with a long piece with a dry brush medium piece, I applied some power grab to the back of the mirror and attached the plank to the mirror pressing for 15 seconds.  I placed books under the plank to keep the plank level with the mirror.

When applying your planks, you want to alternate the planks so two are not the same next to each other.

Taking a medium stain plank, I applied a small amount of power grab to the lip of the longer plank and some on the mirror and I applied the second plank on the top of the lip and pressed.  I measured the space between the two planks to make sure I keep the same distance.

Taking a long plank with a stain plank applying it the same way as the second.  Then a medium dry brush with a painted short piece next.  I kept alternating the pieces all the way around the mirror.    Keeping all the planks level with books underneath them.

Before the glue was dry, I went around and double checked my space between the planks making sure the spaces were all the same measurement.  4 inches apart at the ends.

I let the planks dry for 24 hours.  This part was so hard…. I wanted so badly to turn it over and look. ha!

We placed the mirror on one of our spare beds so I can work with the 5 1/2 inch planks.

Here is what I did with the twenty – 5 1/2 planks

•  6 of the planks left stained
• 6 of the planks lightly dry brushed
• 8 of the planks medium dry brushed

I attached them to the planks with power grab.

It was not a simple or quick DIY, the math part was pretty tough to figure out, but for you I have all the measurements you need so no math needed for you. 🙂

We placed the mirror up on the wall over the sofa with some heavy picture wall brackets.  I just love my sunburst mirror. ♥♥♥ Doesn’t it look so pretty?

Since I did all the figuring for you, pin this on one of your Pinterest boards until you have all the supplies.  Can’t wait to see how your mirror turns out !! 🙂

⇓ PIN THIS ⇓

 

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♥ Terrie

Now be sure to check out my friend’s Sunburst Mirror!