For the longest time I wanted to have a sunburst mirror as part of my home decor. I went through hours and hours of online and in-store browsing, but could not find the right mix of color, size and price. I had a couple of potential spots for such an art piece in the house, but was in no rush to 'just buy something' and get it done with.
However, when one of my wall art pieces fell and cracked (mentioned as #14 in my first post) I found a good enough reason to amp up my search. Since the cost ended up being the most important driving factor (some of these can go up to $200-$300), I just knew that I had to DIY it and make something in a fraction of the cost, then those available in designer stores. I looked up DIY blogs and pinterest for ideas and headed to my second home (Michaels) in search of the raw materials.
My recipe for awesomeness:
Since this piece was going up against a light gray wall, we painted the sticks black to add contrast.
To give the sticks some dimension, we decided to alternate the longer sticks with shorter ones. Starting with the corners, I glued the sticks on the back of the mirror, trying to get the right angles and filling up the empty spots.
Once the sticks were glued on, we flipped the piece, with the mirror facing up and added the jewels. We stuck with the square theme and used square jewels. We played around a bit with the placement, till we both felt it was 'full enough'.
It was ready to go up on the wall. This photo shows the scale of this piece with the rest of the wall. There is a big window on the wall across from this piece, so there is a lot of light bouncing back and forth. I really liked the way this one turned out and mom's approval was the cherry on the cake!
A couple of my neighbors saw this and have asked me to make one for them too. I might experiment with different colors and width of the sticks. With the total cost coming in under $25, I feel like this project can take endless shapes and forms :)
However, when one of my wall art pieces fell and cracked (mentioned as #14 in my first post) I found a good enough reason to amp up my search. Since the cost ended up being the most important driving factor (some of these can go up to $200-$300), I just knew that I had to DIY it and make something in a fraction of the cost, then those available in designer stores. I looked up DIY blogs and pinterest for ideas and headed to my second home (Michaels) in search of the raw materials.
My recipe for awesomeness:
- Even though sunburst mirrors have a round mirror at the center, I decided to break the rules and bought a square mirror
- A couple of packets of craft sticks to make the rays
- Black acrylic paint (already had that from a previous project)
- Left over jewels from the vinyl/decal project
- A glue-gun with dual-settings (I used the high setting for this one)
The most fun part about this project was having my mom to assist me. Putting this whole thing together took me back to my childhood, and made me realize that I get my creative gene from her. In the house that I grew up in, every nook and corner was covered with DIY projects by my mom. She jumped right into the groove and with her help, we were able to wrap this up in an hour!?
