How to paint a mirror frame

(Dixie Belle Paint sponsored the products used in this post)

Many years ago, I bought a mirror with a gilded frame that I hung over our fireplace, and I loved it so much… until I didn’t.

True to my nature, I changed it to something I liked better. I painted the gilded mirror silver. I loved the new look for many years… until I didn’t.

Any guesses what I did then, as in yesterday? Yup, I changed it again! I wanted it to be gold (and black) again, but not exactly the same as before.

You might have seen the silver frame in one of my first blog posts about Scale and Proportion.

These are the three products I used for this project. At the bottom of this post, you can find a link to shop Dixie Belle products. Let me show you what I did.

My previous paint effort did bubble up slightly, so my first step was to sand everything smoothly. Here you can see the original finish peeking out.

Dixie Belle chalk paint in the color Caviar worked perfectly for my base coat. I painted the entire frame black.

Applying clear coat sealer over chalk paint

The Clear Coat followed after two coats of chalk paint that I left to dry overnight.

The sealer looked blue as I painted it on, and I was slightly worried until I saw that it was completely clear once dry.

You might have noticed that I did not use painter’s tape to protect the mirror. Mirrors and glass are easier to clean by scraping the paint off with a blade than taping all the edges. It takes no effort at all.

Once the sealer was dry, I applied the gilding wax on all the raised detail. The gilding wax is my favorite part! The smell is not the greatest, but it looks gorgeous.