Giant Shell Mirror DIY & a THANKS!

I have give a HUGE thanks to Linds over at Everything LEB for featuring a slew of my DIYs and Marcy at Stylesson for featuring my porch. I am totally flattered by the love, thank you ladies!

While on the topic of DIYs, I have a more detailed explaination on how I made the giant shell mirror from my last post and where to find some...
What you will need:
Hot Glue gun
Round or Octagonal Mirror
Enough shells to surround mirror's edge
Piece of plywood cut 2-3" bigger than mirror
Spray paint to paint plywood and shells (if so desired)
Drill to make hole to hang mirror
 I had found 8 of these giant scallop shells I found for $10 last summer  at a yard sale I *think*.  I found more here  and here cheap. The big ones are called Irish Baking Scallops if you want to Google.  I had no idea what I was going to do with them, until I came across this octogon mirror I had as well.  I played around with them and was digging the patten the negative space made.
 I had this fantastic design in my head so I cut a 17" octogon out of plywood and glued it all together and had a big FAIL.
It all fell apart. The shells only have a few points that make contact,
and the hot glue wasn't strong enough. 
I decided to spray the shells gold and try something else...

TAKE 2:
I kept the octagonal plywood, but cut it down an inch so it wouldn't show.
I realized the shell's clasp was about the same size as the edge of the mirror. They wouldn't lay flat  all together, so they would need to go on in two layers.
I hot glued them in close to the  mirror. The first 4 lay flat at every other edge of the mirror, then 4 at an angle on top.  To my surprise it held.  The upper layer got glued along the clasp and at the points it touched the neighboring shell.  I drilled a hole near the top of the underlying plywood to hang it from.


 Finished this mirror is 24" around, but  I think this can also be done with smaller shells and a round mirror.

Also someone had asked where I got my mosquito netting for my porch curtains... IKEA- 2 enorous panels for like 5 bucks... I used 6 panels and sewed them all together so there were no open seams (lesson learned from last year, those sneaky bugs slip in through the cracks), so $15 total for curtains, and $30 for 2 IKEA wire cable systems to hang them.  Super cheap!!!




8 comments:

My Interior Life said...

You're a wonder!

Lily said...

Really cool....the mirror looks amazing !

xxLily
goldandgray.com

jandjhome said...

The mirror is adorable. Perfect for a beachhouse. I added it to my Pinterest things I love.

LindsB said...

aw you are sweet!

I dont know what it is with New England bugs, but those suckers know how to get in ANYTHING. Good idea on the sewing part- love how it looks!

Bradley said...

This is such a cute project! It turned out so lovely!


www.luellajune.com

Brandi@ Flights of Whimsy said...

Seems so serendipitous that the edge of the mirror and the shells matched up so well. It might be hard to duplicate but I just might try!

LiveLikeYou said...

You're are my DIY queen!! That is beautiful!!!

Marcy said...

Thank you so much for the mention!

I love the shell mirror so I'm glad that you give the instructions for putting it together.

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