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Bower Power

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Mirrors Mirrors On the Wall

OUR 2nd HOUSE

Hopefully absense makes the heart grow fonder.  Or is that absinth?  Both kinda make sense..

Either way, I am back with a renewed sense of vigor.  I have some fun stuff planned and stashed away so hopefully you’lll join me for that journey.  Oh and I still have to post about Christmas…and New Years…but that can wait a few more days, right?  I mean, it is already the 18th…what’s a few more days!

So today we are in the first floor bathroom with an interesting issue…the mirror.

Remember when I repainted this ‘bloodfest’ and redid the vanity and installed new sconces (that are actually cheap exterior lights) and then found the mirror at Hobby Lobby?

Well, there’s something I forgot to mention…and remembered to crop out….all that forehead.  Yeah.  That’s what I call it.  The space above the mirror that conveniently got cropped out when I revealed this bathroom the first time around.  (oh the beauty of the internet).

Here’s a better overview shot of the forehead situation.  Yeah.  If you squint, you can see that the vanity area is like Christina Ricci…or me.  Both of whom have what I affectionately call fiveheads….foreheads so big that they had to be bumped up a nugget.

And the mirror wasn’t helping.  It was just accentuating the vast expanse above the browline.  So I asked Jer to bring it down…and I would start anew.

Forgive all the crazy colors – this room is the black hole in the back with very little space so it’s hard to capture…much less white balance.

Then I found an old uber-cheap plastic (YUP – Plastic!) mirror at a thrift store that actually belonged above a dresser (see the wood and bolts used to fasten it to the top of the dresser?).

It was listed at $8 and I got it for half off that day (yeah I must budget for home renos and I only shop when I can get a discount…even at thrift stores).  So four bones for my fore head 🙂   I give that an a-ok.

We figured out through a little trial and error that we could use the existing bolts to fasten picture hanging wire (tripled up).  Since the bolts were bent, we couldn’t remove them…so Jer went with the whole if-you-can’t-beat-em-join-em philosophy.  And the wood blocks were attached better to the whole thing than we could attach something new…so in the end it worked.

yeah, our littlest helper was just about to go up for bedtime and gave us the approval to hang the plastic beast after a little quality control checking 🙂

Also – you can see at the bottom we attached some scrap wood blocks…yeah, hot glued those bad boys right on.  We did that because when the mirror was hung up on the hooks, it leaned forward a little too much for our liking and the bottom hit the wall.  The blocks were sort of like spacers.

And now for the new bigger mirror that actually fills up the space…

Cuter huh?

Yup…still got a forehead but nothing like the Christian Slater of before.  Excuse the dirtiness…just keepin it real.

My favorite part is the little ‘cutouts’ at the top.  It’s those kinda details that make a piece really interesting in my book.

Oh and you can see in the reflection that I added a horseshoe to this room above the artwork over the toilet.  Maybe that will bring us a little luck in the bedroom if you know what I mean…hubbahubba.

What did I do with the other round mirror?  Well, I put it in Will’s room over the new storage toy box.   Yeah, all that squareness was getting to me so I thought a dark brown mirror would break things up a little.

Oh and people have been asking me the ‘theme’ of the nursery…yeah…no theme…not really.  If I had to pick one, it would be masculine gentlemen boy…with a little refinement and whimsy…and a lot of texture and stuff Will likes…how’s that for a theme?  Oh and globes.  I’m obsessed with globes right now.  so throw that in too.

What do you think?  Anybody else with forehead issues?  Or switching out mirrors mirrors on the wall for the fairest one of them all?  Yeah…my new one might not be the fairest and it might have a paint job in it’s future…but right now it balances things out.  It really is the better scale for the space….and Nate Berkus said I have a great sense of scale….just in case you forgot (wink wink)…and because I walk around muttering that to myself when I should be saying “NO WILL DO NOT TOUCH YOUR PEEPEE” for the 704th time 🙂

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  1. I love how you think outside the box. I thought the vanity looked great as is but you just kicked it up a notch 🙂 You should write a book about giving new life to thrift store finds. You’re awesome at it!

  2. Love the new mirror!!! The mirror before was way too Tyra Banks!! I agree on a new paint job though….can’t wait to see what you do with it!! Are those pretzel rods in the cup on your bathroom vanity?!?!?! HA!! Have a little snack as you sit on the thrown!! Ok…awkward!!

  7. Can you imagine if I said yes?
    Because I can…and it’s hilarious.
    But no…they were cinnamon sticks…for Christmas cheer 🙂
    xo – kb

  8. $4?? How do you do it? And yes – I know all about fiveheads. They’re awesome, right? It’s even my nickname from my SIL. I realize I could take that the wrong way, but why not work what your momma (err, daddy in my case) gave you??! Rock on with your fivehead(s).

  10. I thought those were pencils?!
    What is someone with a short forehead called? That is me. I have never had bangs in my life – even through the “80’s big bangs revolution” because my forehead is so short. I have always wanted bangs to curl or straighten. Haha
    By the way – I love the new mirror.

  11. Looks great! I am all for discounted thrifting – I do it all the time. In fact, I purposefully wait until Wednesdays to go to my local Waterfront Rescue Mission because that is when they start their clearance sale for the week!

  12. Looks great! We had a circular mirror near the door but replaced it with a longer one as well. It makes it much easier to check out whether or not I have toothpaste dribbled on my top.

  14. $4! How do you do it?! It looks so much better in there! Kinda like a set of bangs or side bangs in my case to break up the expanse of forehead!

    And I’m actually dreading having sons for the whole “stop touching your junk” thing…

  17. Anytime people through adjectives around to describe home decor, like … “masculine gentlemen boy…with a little refinement and whimsy” … it makes me think of Secrets by Stylist how Emily Henderson would “style diagnostic” her guests.

  19. I know what you mean about the touching! Ahhh! I was so tired of saying “Jackson, get your hand OUT of your pants!”, so I bought a big pack of white onsies and he wears them everyday under his t-shirts. After two months he can wear separate pajamas without wetting himself after pushing his diaper down to get to that area. Ha, once he grows out of 18 month onsies, we-ll see what he relearns. Being a mom of a boy is so much fun! Hehe.

  20. Love the new mirror! I can’t believe you got that for only $4! What a deal!! The round mirror looks great in Will’s room too! I love the globes on top of his shelves/storage unit. Have you thought about getting one of those giant world maps to put up on his wall?

  21. That looks awesome! I love how the lines of the new mirror really work well with your vanity! Want to come work on my house next? 🙂

  25. I love the mirror, but I’m really here to talk about globes as I’m also obsessed. Are you on Pinterest? It’s like globe/map porn (in a non sleazy way) 🙂

  26. Mirrors are on my mind right now too! All of the tile is finished in our bathrooms but we have naked walls above our vanities! I know for our guest bathrooms something simple and decorative will work, but I am torn in the master. We have tall ceilings too and a 6′ vanity. At first I thought 2 separate mirrors, but then I thought I might like an unframed larger 6′ mirror….good for giving yourself the final check in the morning. But hanging a mirror that big seams SCARY! Have any tips?

    Just realized, I don’t have any current photos of our bathroom up yet! But our master bathroom can be seen here: http://cerniks.wordpress.com/tag/bathroom

    Whitney

  27. My sister and I refer to our small foreheads as “threeheads,” just foreheads bumped down a nugget, to use Katie’s terminology. 🙂

  29. I love this mirror! It fits perfectly with the space above it. Great find! 🙂 You always find the BEST stuff… or if you can’t find it, you make the BEST stuff! Thank you, as always, for the inspiration!

  30. Christina Ricci is so cute but her forehead drives me crazy. Keep the bangs, girl!
    Your issues with Will touching his peepee totally remind me of these boys I used to nanny for. Totally adorable and fun (ages 1,3, and 5), but the 3 and 5 year would literally sit on the couch after they woke up with both hands in their pants. KILLED me. I made them wash their hands before eating breakfast for that reason.
    Also dealt with them telling me how BIG their daddy’s peepee was compared to theirs. Um… awkward.

  32. So I love your new mirror, but have a pressing/superstitious filled/totally unrelated to your post sort of question:

    What made you decide to hang your horseshoe pointed up (the U shape)? I recently came upon a horseshoe (ok don’t tell but I may have stolen it from an abandoned Amish barn – as if THAT isn’t bad luck inducing enough…) & looked online & got completely mixed reviews about how to hang it. Some say if you hang it like you did it lets all the luck flow into it (like luck going into a bucket), but others say if you hang it upside down more like a n shape it wards off bad luck.

    I can’t decide. Either way I feel like I am going to make “someone” unhappy. What do you think? Did you just toss it up there whichever way looked best (which is what I was going to rely on until I looked it up)?

  33. I just bought a big plastic mirror at goodwill the other day too. I think you’d like it for your bathroom as much as the one you bought. I didn’t get as good a deal as you did, but for $10 I wanted it to be mine and no one elses 🙂

  34. Much better. I thought the sink also looked too small in the before, but, optical illusion, the new mirror seems to have fixed that too. Was the round mirror actually wider (at it’s widest point, I mean).

  37. I’m liking the new mirror! And the round mirror looks great in Will’s room too.
    You’re a lucky fivehead – I have to wear bangs 🙁 ohh to be able to pin those babies back!

  38. The mirror looks great! The price sure was right…mirrors can be sooo expensive! I’m still hoping to see pics of the backyard wedding!

  39. I thought my family was the only one that called a giant forehead a “fivehead!!!” My siblings and I all have ’em. Hellloooooo, bangs! Covers that puppy right up.

    LOVE the new mirror!

  40. I actually got a link for the low-res photos so hopefully my sis will bring the cd this Thursday at family dinner. I’ll call to see if she got it yet !
    xo – kb

  41. I hung up one before where it was facing down because there was no possible way to hang it U shaped…so this time I switched things up…not for any other reason than I just like a change 🙂
    xo – kb

  42. Go for it! I like to say the bigger the better! Mirrors are great for making spaces feel bigger and lighter so there is no harm in going with something large. And just make sure to have it very secure to the wall…your local hardware store employees can help!
    xo – kb

  45. I’m sooo with you. I feel like I buy mirrors all the time! And I like to switch em up and move em around. 🙂 The bathroom looks great. And everyone could use a little luck in the loo, don’t you think? 😉

  46. I do love this mirror…..as long as it doesn’t look too plastic. I guess you could paint it. But I really do like it.b $4.00? I tell ya. I goto our Goodwill and NEVER find a thing. You are so good at shopping.

    Bravo Katie!

    Barb

  48. lol, all this big heads and forehead talk reminds me of my cousin. She makes fun of her big head and forehead all the time!

  51. I was always told you should hang them in the U-shape because if you hang them the other way all the luck runs out. (And yes, by always I mean I had more than one relative with a horseshoe hanging on their wall that I could ask about it when I was growing up. Three cheers for rural western New York).

  52. love the new mirror, bigger is better right?

    also, the round one in wills room totally looks like a port hole- so, if you are digging the whole globe thing, you can go nautical- globy! (is that a word?)

    glad you are back- was hoping there that you were too tired and sick (wink wink) to be blogging! fingers crossed for you!

  54. Dang, you must have an awesome thrift store near you! I never find anything near as cool as that mirror (or as cheap..even on half off days). And Christina Ricci definitely has a five-head. Every time I watch Pan Am I have to comment on it at least once. Also, I watched The Help this weekend and saw that Nate Berkus was a producer (I’m pretty sure it was producer). Didn’t know he was in the movie biz…

    All that to say, love the new mirror! 🙂

  58. I am astonished! I loved the first mirror!!! BUT….the “new” one is so P*E*R*F*C*T! (So much so that I actually just typed that out for you) AND…putting the “old” one over the toy box is genius! It is exactly what that needed. I am never disappointed to drop by! You go girl!

  59. You sure have some sweet resale shops around there. You come home with AWESOME stuff. Now you’ve gone and inspired me. My poor hubby has a to-do list out the wazoo. I may need to tackle this one on my own. EEk.

  60. I totally have a threehead and my bestie has a fivehead. I’m always so jealous of her awesome side swept bangs! I guess we always want what we can’t have! The mirror change is perfect! I really need a goodwill trip soon. Do you think there are better finds right after Christmas? Do people give stuff away once they get a lot?

  62. I’m jealous of the high foreheads (not above the mirror of course). If I have my index and middle fingers together, they just fit between my eyebrows and my hairline. The mirror change-out is awesome, but can I suggest repainting the mirror in Will’s room? Maybe to match his chairs (which I know is hard, since they’re stained and not painted)?

  64. Hilarious! This is how I explain to my daughter whether a forehead is low or high: the finger test. (I need two hands to do it.) I always tell her how lucky she is to have a nice medium-sized forehead, and how I married her dad to breed out the high forehead and the weak chin. 😉

  65. I’m totally obsessed with globes right now, too! Found one in great shape (and $10!) at an Antique Mall in Cartersville (I live in Marietta). I was so excited. My husband doesn’t quite understand it, but oh well 🙂

  66. Oh nice switcheroo! I like that mirror better in that space ( I like big mirrors) I could kick myself, I saw a large mirror like that by a dumpster near a friend’s apartment and the hubs didn’t want to take it home….I should have just grabbed it anway! I hadn’t thought of hanging it in the bathroom!

  69. The new mirror definitely fits the scale of the space better. That was a fabulous 4 dollar change.

    And when you said excuse the dirtiness, I puzzled for a few minutes over what is dirty about Christian Slater’s forehead before I realized you were talking about the mirror.

  71. Lovely job!
    (However, I do believe you meant, “absence” with a “c” and not an “s” at the beginning of the post!)

  72. Much better! The round baby mirror was cool, you know, for a baby. (Oh hi, Will!) But I’m much more of a fan of the grown-up size mirror, although that may be because I have an abnormally sized grown-up head and need lots of mirror real estate. 😉

  74. THANK YOU! For NOT having a theme in Will’s room! I’m expecting my first in a few weeks and there are several people who are desperate to find a theme (frogs and monkeys are the two main ones that keep getting pushed) in his room, clothes, bath stuff, etc. The colors coordinate in his room and his bath and little boy clothes have a lot of animals on them! Do I need anything else? Please tell me no (if only because I’m super prego and it’s what I want to hear)!

  76. LOVE the new bigger mirror in the bathroom. And your equestrian prints. And I like the round mirror very much – I have one just like it in my foyer – but I think maybe it needs something on either side of it to balance it out – what do you think? Or maybe it’s just a smidge too high? I’m not sure. I think you’re right, that it has a home over Will’s toybox, but something still feels a bit off. Eh, what do I know? As long as you guys love it, who cares?

  79. I figure I will try one way & if my luck runs out I will just swap it – that’s legit, right?

    That is awesome that you grew up in western NY!! I lived there for about 10 years & my parents actually still live in Westfield, NY (it is an itty bitty town near the Jamestown/Buffalo area which is where I “found” my horseshoe).

  80. I actually have a question… We updated a spare bathroom in our house and couldn’t find a mirror that didn’t fully cover the amazing copper glass and metal backsplash. I finally found a mirror that used to be attached to a dresser, an older one that had posts and attached to the side of the mirror… Drilling into the glass/metal is what we are trying to avoid, is there any other way you can think to hang it?

  81. I would probably only feel comfortable with something a little more stable…which would require drilling into the backsplash…but if I was die hard against it…then I probably would try something like heavy duty velcro strips. It all matters how much the mirror weighs.
    xo – kb

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