I was inspired this month to work on adding some fun elements to our bathroom by Jen at IHeart Organizing. I only got to one of the projects but will be working on a couple others for April that I will share with you.
We live in a rental apartment so there was no replacing the boring medicine cabinet we have. After getting permission from our landlord, I decided to add a frame to the cabinet to dress it up.
The medicine cabinet is not a standard size, so I was not able to buy a pre-made frame to use.
Instead, I purchased a piece of molding from Home Depot and my fabulous friend, Pete made me a frame! I chose molding that had a lip on the back so that it would wrap around and hide the silver, metallic edge of the mirror. Pete used wood glue and nails to hold it together so that it would be stronger.
Now I couldn’t just leave the wood plain, so I decided to make some clay flowers and leaves to adorn the corners. I found the idea for adding the flowers at Addicted 2 Decorating and give her credit for her fabulous tutorial and project! I started each flower with 4 balls of white Sculpey clay, flattening each ball out with my finger and pulling out on one side to form a petal. I put the 4 petals together, points in, molded the rounded edges slightly to give them a curve, and added a 5th ball in the center that I pushed flat to hold the petals together. I also made some individual petals for filler. For the leaves, I started with a small log shape that I tapered on each end. I flattened out the log shape to form the leaf and used a stylus to add in the veins. Tip: work on wax paper so that you can keep your table surface and your clay clean.
After I had all my flowers, petals and leaves (it took 2oz of clay to make everything you see), I put all the shapes on a piece of parchment paper and baked the clay on a oven safe dish. Follow the baking directions for the brand of clay that you are using as each might be slightly different. The thickness of your clay pieces can also determine the baking time.
Once all of the clay pieces were cool (I waited until the next day), I glued them in place on my frame with E-6000, letting the glue dry overnight.
I basecoated the frame with primer first, and then added 2 coats of Thicket FolkArt acrylic paint. I made sure to paint the back of the frame as it most likely will be reflected in the mirror.
I then drybrushed (how-to here) the frame with 3 different FolkArt colors: Clover, Italian Sage and, finally, Parchment. I did let each color dry before moving on to the next. To finish, I used a matte spray sealer to protect the paint on the frame, and then attached it to the medicine cabinet using sticky back velcro.
I think it made a fabulous difference in the bathroom! I can’t wait to add some other projects to tie the room together.
What updates have you added to your space recently? For more inspiration follow my Home Decorating board on Pinterest!
I link up at these great parties!