best way to "refinish" a bathroom mirror.

[JustinH]

So, my wife is out of town for a couple weeks visiting family back north.

I am going to freshen up both bathrooms in the house. I'm repainting ceilings and walls.

Both the mirrors are typical builder grade stuff from ten years ago.

Both of the mirrors have about a one inch water stain running along the bottom of them, from people splashing water on the glass. Also one has a stain on the left hand side of the mirror.

I was going to replace them, seemed like a no brainer.

Then I started looking around for mirrors of a similar size, they are tough to find, it would need to be custom cut mirrors.

So that price went to about $200 each for new mirrors. Decided I did not want to pay that much.

Now I am thinking about masking off the mirror and painting a "frame" around the outside inch of the entire mirror to cover up the stain.

I'm not sure what type of paint or material to use that will hold up to a moist bathroom, and hold up to being cleaned with window cleaner regularly.

I was thinking about taping it off and painting it, or applying that "blur" window film that people put on their bath windows for privacy.

I had applied a blur film on my house in NY and it came out great, and did not peel at all.

I'll post some photos if what i'm saying doesn't make sense!

Thanks,
Justin

 

[EdwardC]

Why not add a wood frame around the edges of the glass? You can get inexpensive trim/molding at the hardware store, cut 45 degree corners, then glue it onto the wall. Finish it with paint and caulk.

 

[spasm3]

Originally Posted By: EdwardC
Why not add a wood frame around the edges of the glass? You can get inexpensive trim/molding at the hardware store, cut 45 degree corners, then glue it onto the wall. Finish it with paint and caulk.


This, but I would take the mirror down and build the frame around it, dado the edges, maybe even add a plywood back. That way you can take it down to paint, as opposed to gluing it to the wall.

I'd use oak stock and stain it the way you want with a 2 coats of polyurethane.

 

[Rolla07]

Just use some water based wood stain. Sand all around it down to bare wood and apply 2-3 coats of stain using the color of your choosing. If water stains it again, you can just repeat the process, as long as you dont sand it down too many times. Water based seems to hold up best..

 

[Exit32]

This doesn't address the OP's question directly, but we had new plate-glass mirrors installed in our bathrooms by a pro a few years ago. Before he removed the old mirrors, he pointed to the "stains" that appeared mostly along the bottom edges of the mirrors and explained that the "stains" were caused by using an ammonia-based glass cleaner.

After installing the new mirrors, he cleaned them using ammonia-free Sprayway Glass Cleaner and he left the remaining cleaner for us to continue to use on our new mirrors. It's been more than three years now, and our new mirrors have not developed any "stains."

FWIW, this is the glass cleaner the mirror pro used: http://a.co/j7ra6Y4

 

[JustinH]

So I got the bathroom taken apart, and repainted last night.

The back of the mirror, the "mirror" coating was failing all over the back of the mirror.

Decided to trash the mirror and go to the At Home store owned by home depot.

Was happy to find a huge aisle of mirrors.

Ended up getting a mirror with a washed out wood frame for $39.99, one inch different from the original size.

Good enough for me. Wife should be happy.

Thanks for the tip on ammonia free cleaner. I use that in the car, but never thought to use it in the house.