One Room Challenge: Powder Room Mirror (Week 3)

It’s week three of the ORC, and this week we’re talking Powder Room Mirrors.  Woot woot!

Week One I shared an intro and the “before” and “still before” photos of the space.  During Week Two we talked all things wallpaper, including my criteria for finding the just-right paper for this little powder room.  (BTW, don’t you love that reaction to the wallpaper above?!  Clearly we need more color and pattern in our house!)

In this tiny 16 square foot room, there are really just a handful of elements, so each one needs to be just right.  With the flooring already in place (12×24″ slate tiles), and the walls already done, I would say the next most important piece is the mirror.  It’s the visual centerpiece of the room.  With such busy wallpaper, the mirror needs to be substantial enough to contrast the scale of the colorful print.  To center a mirror over the sink, the mirror would have to be quite small.  So, I decided instead to center the mirror on the wall.

The Find

I was recently in Wilmington, NC with some good friends and we were shopping at a fantastic consignment store, The Ivy Cottage. They have an excellent selection of mirrors of all shapes and sizes.  First I saw this lovely option:

I loved the contrast of the gold ornate frame, with the clean edges of the floating mirror.  This was definitely a really good option.  As I was contemplating it and wandering around the rest of the store, I noticed something kind of funky and super unique.

This mirror was framed in vintage cobbler molds!  It was gigantic at 41″ across, though the dimensions on the tag simply read, “HEAVY”.  And, heavy it was!  With encouragement from my friends, I bought it.  I knew I could find a spot for this big beauty, in the powder room or elsewhere.  This would certainly need to be hung on studs, so the location of the studs in the powder room would determine whether or not this would work.  (There were two rings on the back of the mirror, spaced 16″ apart.)

When we got home from the beach trip, I grabbed my stud finder and checked to see if it would work.  Sure enough, there were two studs located on the wall above the sink and toilet.  They weren’t perfectly centered, but would work just fine.

I taped off the location to think it through.

Then I figured I’d go ahead and hang the mirror before putting up the wallpaper.  May as well see it in place before damaging the wallpaper….juuuuust to be sure. Can you tell I’m a planner?  A little bit Type A?

I loved it!  It adds a huge dose of patina and charm to the space.

Once the wallpaper was up, I had to visualize some other options just to confirm my decision.

Decision made!  None packed quite the punch as the cobbler mirror.  I hung it again (a few inches lower than the test run).

Similar Options

Now, if you like this look, it’s unlikely that you’ll find a huge ass cobbler mold mirror in your neighborhood shop.  Google didn’t even turn up any results when I searched, but let me share with you a few mirrors that would work equally well.  The chunky wood ones have the same spirit as the cobbler mirror.  The thin framed options work equally as well, but on the other end of the spectrum: for their    simplicity.

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9

Did you notice the new window shade?  It’s a simple “off-the-rack” option from Home Depot.  One of the standard sizes worked perfectly here, and the finish totally compliments the mirror!

Be sure to check out the other participant’s Week 3 updates here.  The featured designers are all linked here.  A big thanks to Linda Weinstein of Calling it Home for creating such a fun and inspiring challenge, and to House Beautiful, the official media sponsor.

That wraps up Week 3 updates!  Next week we’re talking sink skirts.  And drama.  There was a bit of [self imposed] drama around the skirt.  Follow my Instagram Stories for sneak peeks!