Framing Our Builder Grade Bathroom Mirror for under $30 + Lessons Learned

Upgrading a builder grade bathroom mirror can be a big impact way to give a bathroom new life and a totally new look. However, if you have looked at the price of mirrors, you’ll know that it will often cost $150+ to get a new mirror (much less 2 if have a double vanity like us). In order to give our primary bathroom that look of a framed mirror, without paying that kind of price, we decided to frame our builder grade bathroom mirror using wood moulding for a project under $30.

We bought our new build house a few years ago, and we are finally getting around to doing more than decorating and adding furniture, but instead wanting to give it some DIY updates that make it a little bit less “builder grade” and more our style. But of course, we are doing everything on a budget and trying to see how much of an impact we can make for as little money as possible. I have been documenting our primary bathroom refresh on my Instagram stories and are attempting to keep it budget friendly.

While I thought this DIY project was going to be super straightforward, alas it was not. I made a series of missteps along the way that made the project a lot more complicated and drawn out that I expected it to be. Because of this, I’m going to explain this how-to through a series of lessons so that you can see how skipping a step or trying to do things a particular way may throw this DIY mirror framing for a loop.

Lesson 1: Just use flexible adhesive moulding instead of wood.

I know this is probably a counterintuitive initial recommendation on a post about how I framed our builder mirror with wood, but honestly, adhesive moulding is the move. We are going to be refreshing another bathroom in our house soon and, and I am absolutely going to be using this adhesive moulding next time. I will not be doing this process with wood again lol it’s simply not worth it!

Instead, I would use flexible adhesive moulding like this or this. You don’t need any tools, you just need a pair of scissors to apply it.

Lesson 2: Try to pick out the straightest piece of moulding

If you decide not to heed my first lesson, the second lesson is going to be to look for the least warped pieces of wood you can. All of the moulding is going to have some warping to an extent, but some is going to be worse than others. However, when you are brad nailing molding to drywall, you have a little bit more flexibility with warp. Because I was attaching my frame to the perimeter of the mirror, I didn’t have the luxury of using nails to secure it.

The warping will result in you ending up with a frame for your mirror that just doesn’t lay quite flat, despite you being absolutely certain that everything is cut and measured perfectly.

Lesson 3: Measure 15 times before cutting

So I actually used these miter shears that I got in anticipation for a picture frame moulding project. They worked OK for this project, although I think the wood moulding was a little bit wider and thicker than I would use for picture frame moulding, so this was a little bit difficult.

I measured so many times, but I did still have to re-cut 3 times (I kept making it too long). I suppose this is the better alternative than cutting it too short and having to go buy more moulding, but because it wasn’t particularly easy to cut the moulding with these miter shears, it was definitely still a headache.

Once you measure your mirror for the length you want, you are going to want to mark it with pencil on your moulding. When you go to make your cuts on the moulding, you are going to cut the ends at 45 degree angles so that the SHORTER end of your moulding is what lines up with your mark.

Lesson 4: Secure all the moulding pieces together before adhering to the mirror

Once you have made all of your cuts, lay the pieces out how you want them and make sure that it looks even. Make sure the corners line up and fit together best you can.

I would also recommend getting some painters tape and taping the pieces onto your mirror to make sure everything looks mostly correct. But remember what I said about warp? It’s probably not going to lay perfectly and line up perfectly when you tape it to the mirror. We are going to fix that best we can when we secure it together.

I made the mistake of initially painting my moulding pieces before securing them together (I ended up giving it another coat after I secured it together). You can see in this picture how the corners were not lining up perfectly because of the warp and because I had not yet secured the pieces together with staples.

Now this is a pretty non-professional way that I went about this. I used a stapler which worked because:

a. I don’t have a legit staple gun and I wasn’t going to buy one just for this headache of a project

b. I wanted to use a l-bracket and some nails to secure it together, but the wood was too thin (and honestly I think would split).

But HEY! This worked! I just laid all of my pieces upside-down together on the floor. I would try to push them together best I could before stapling all along the edge. Once I did all 4 corners, I flipped the whole frame over and used a hot glue gun to give a really thin filler in the gaps. If this sounds unprofessional– you’re right, however, its a great solution if you don’t have clamps, because it dries so fast, that you can hold it together tight while it dries to give it the best look that you can!

Then I gave it another coat of Tricorn Black paint, and honestly it turned out not too shabby!

How could you do this more professionally? Well you could use wood glue and clamps (which I didn’t have and didn’t want to go get). You could use a legit staple gun for a stronger reinforcement. You could also use wood filler and then sand it in the gaps. Again– I didn’t have any wood filler on hand, and honestly, sanding this moulding with the decorative details sounded awful.

Lesson 5: Don’t try to stain it– just paint it

Our cabinets in our bathroom are a dark wood color, and so I initially swatched an extra piece of moulding with the stains that we had in our garage: Jacobean, Special Walnut, and Mission Oak (all by Minwax).

We decided to go with Special Walnut by Minwax, but what I found (and should have known better) was that the wood moulding already had a lot of variation in the color of the wood BEFORE I stained it. Because it is really more like plywood, not solid wood. So when I stained it, it came out looking VERY patchy.

Ultimately, I ended up painting over it with Tricorn Black by Sherwin Williams.

You’re going to want to paint the entire thing after you secure the pieces together. This will help cover up any glue and help cover some of the imperfections too.

Lesson 6: Seal it with polycrylic

You want to seal any wood project, but this one especially because if it is going on your bathroom mirror. The bathroom has humidity and water splashes, so sealing it with polycrylic, will help ensure that your headache of a project at least runs the distance.

Lesson 7: Adhere it with something non-permanent

I already had a roll of this 3M adhesive foam tape (basically like command strips on a roll), and it works perfectly. If you put it up and realize something is not right, you can take it down (somewhat easily), but if you do it right and you like the look of the frame, it has a really good hold to it.

We just applied the foam tape to all corners of the frame before lining it up how we wanted it and adhering all the edges to the mirror.

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