This Bone Sunburst Mirror from Ballard Designs was total love at first sight,
but the $269 price tag was not.
There had to be a way to replicate the look without the cost.
I have to tell you this project was a royal pain! Chalk it up to a lesson in perseverance. But the results are worth it!
I’ll show you how I attempted to copy it and feel free to give it a go, but it took A LOT of time and patience, both of which I don’t have.
Replicating bone is not easy. This area gets very humid so I knew cardstock or poster board wouldn’t work. I chose transparencies.
The rough side of each transparency was sprayed first with Rust-oleum’s multi-colored textured paint in a sand color,
then with Heirloom White and allowed to dry.
Each sheet was cut lengthwise into 4 equal strips. The strips were then cut into 4 separate sizes for the “bone” layers.
The 3 shorter strips were each folded lengthwise and a slight curve was cut at one end.
The longest strips were also folded in half and a sharper cut was made to form a point. Then ALL pieces were folded using a paper airplane technique. This was repeated, oh I’d say, about 152 times. That’s A LOT of folding. See where the perseverance enters the pic?
Then all the little “airplanes” were stacked and hot glued at their base, creating a 4 layered “airplane” or strip.
I wasn’t pleased with the appearance of the paint, since my kids said it just looked like sandpaper. (thank you children)
It needed more iridescence. I then painted 1/2 of all the stacked and glued strips with the pearl acrylic paint.
Alternating and overlapping a pearlized strip with a plain strip, a circle was formed and a dot of glue somewhat secured it in place.
Double sided sticky tape was applied around the backside of a 14 inch mirror and pressed onto the sunburst.
But that only holds it enough for you to flip the mirror over (enter MORE perseverance).
So I scoured the garage for some crazy sticky tape and found this metal tape that I think HVAC guys use. It’s STRONG!!
The entire back edges were covered with the tape and I even taped on some hanging wire.
For a small amount of money and a ton of elbow grease, I think I was able to create something close to the original.
Was it worth all the time and energy?
Yes, but I would still take the real Ballard’s Bone Sunburst Mirror any day of the week, if anyone would like to purchase it for me!
Kim
linking up to:
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O.M.G. this is AMAZING Kim! I love it! I’ll share it on my FB page in a sec.
Kim!! WOW! That is really amazing. Well worth it. I definitely don’t have the patience for it, but glad you persevered through it because it looks awesome!
Wow, you are really talented!!
Oh my goodness girl, you are patient. And it paid off because your mirror looks great!
-Rene
This is spectacular! I think you need to take on more of these types of ‘perseverance’ projects bc you rock ’em girl!! 🙂
-Kristi
@ Creative Kristi
Kim,
This is amazing! You did a good job, but I can tell I would have run out of patience by the end.
Thanks for sharing!
Denise
It’s good to know that there are people out there with more patience than I have. It definitely paid off… this looks gorgeous!
Patience I have plenty but time limited as well. Nevertheless since I love your ideas I would give it a try if I could figure out the equivalent ones to the products you used (except the transparencies which are international).
Definitely nothing American hits this East side of Europe. But I would invite you over to my blog because you know how highly I value your taste and I want your opinion. Pls > http://lifebookmarks-eng.blogspot.com/2011/02/decoupage-oxidized-bouquet.html
Meanwhile have a wonderful w/e
Wow, what a great project!!!! What color is the paint in your room? Such a pretty blue!
You are so creative! Great job! You need to hire yourself out as an interior decorator! HGTV here you come!
Thanks everyone! The room color is Benjamin Moore’s Affinity Collection, “Atmospheric”. It used to be a Pottery Barn color a few years back.
Ballard called…they want their mirror back, nice try trying to pass it off as your own creation!! ha ha, GREAT Job! I was fooled 🙂
Kim B.
Wow that mirror is stunning! I know that was a ton of hard work and patience! I just found your blog and love it – new follower 🙂 Just wanted to say hey & hope you’re having a great weekend!
Dana
http://southerninspired.blogspot.com/
You had me fooled…I thought you were just showing another picture of the mirror from Ballard’s. It turned out awesome!!! Thank you so much for sharing!
Wow, it looks remarkably like the one from Ballard. Gorgeous (but I can see how it was totally time consuming!!). I’d love it if you’d link this project up on my Marvelous Mess party!! I’ll be picking one project to feature prominently on my sidebar for a week!! Here is the link to it:
http://tinyurl.com/4k6f29c
Looks fabulous!!
Holy smokes girl! This is amazing and completely gorgeous. You rock!
Laurie
Tip Junkie
This is awesome – thanks for sharing!
Defintely worth the hassle! It is lovely!
I personally think it looks absolutely fabulous! Great job – I would have given up about 10 minutes into it. I have ZERO patience 🙂
I love the colour of your walls! What is it?
Oh my goodness, this turned out so well! Way to go. http://itsybitsypaper.blogspot.com
Get OUT! That is crazy cool- gonna post it on my FB page!
Wow! That looks amazing! I would have never guess you used transparencies.
Beautiful job on your mirror! I linked this to my sunburst mirrors project post too, it’s gorgeous!
So creative Kim! I just can’t get over how close it looks to the inspiration mirror – amazing result!
xo Jenna
I love this! I would have never guessed transparency! I did something similar with masking tape
Stop on over if you like. http://reposhture.blogspot.com/2011/10/knock-knock-whos-there-knock-off.html
Kim@reposhture.blogspot.com
I am so sorry! I just read the comments “comment” and I shared a link! please forgive this gaffe
Kim@reposhture.blogpsot.com