When I went to wash off the grime with just a little water, the silvering completely cleaned off to show the quality beveled glass. And the wooden frame? You would have to break wood off the back to get the glass out, so I wanted the glass to stay.
But I wanted it to be a mirror. Hmm.
I looked into re-silvering but had a terrible time finding someone to do it. The man I talked to literally said that everyone that used to do it was dead. The reason no one does it anymore is because the chemicals used to take the old silvering off were banned because of how crazy dangerous they are! However, since my mirror was already de-silvered, I just needed the mirror coating put back on.
No luck.
I did talk to a guy who wanted about $200 for an un-perfected silvering method he was working on. I said, "Uh, no thanks."
Then I ran into an online tutorial (the link is for a more recent version) for a similar, albeit faux, look with Looking Glass spray paint from the hobby store.
$7 with coupon? Yes, please!
I broke it out last weekend to *finally* work on this long-time-coming DIY and here is the result.
I didn't re-read the tutorial before I got into it, and I wish I would've. I followed the instructions on the can to use 5 thin coats instead of the one thick coat Jenny recommends. I think the bright sunshine plus the extra time sealed in some of the smaller droplets I would've liked to rubbed off. Oh well.It was also difficult to see exactly where all of the water/vinegar drops landed and I think I would've made some of them a little less uniform for a more authentic look.
I topped it off with a few coats of black spray paint (so instead of seeing through the spots where the looking glass spray was wiped away, it would look black like an antique mirror) and added two small eye hooks and a picture hanging wire.
:-)
