How to Create a Thrift Store Mirror Wall

Spring has finally arrived here in Michigan, but it is too darn cold to do much outside, so here I am still inside doing my decorating thing 😊. To set the stage so to speak…there’s this very traditional style “den” or “sitting room” to the right as you walk into our house. This unidentified, rather unnecessary space, has inspired me to try something a bit fun for folks as they walk in. By fun, I do not mean a playroom 😉, although I can totally understand why the previous owners used it as such (see image below). I’m hoping my affordable idea of using old/used mirrors will not only welcome you as you walk in, but also reel you in for more. Come on in, and I will show you “How to Create a Thrift Store Mirror Wall”. Here’s the BEFORE PHOTO I SNAPPED BEFORE WE MOVED WHEN WE WERE AT THE SHOWING…

Before Photo of the Big Wall Before We Moved In

I admit we were surprised at the mess to the right of us as we walked in the house and took off our boots, during the first showing. The rest of the house was more organized, and prepared for the showings, but after we bought the home things went down hill as far as cleanliness. FYI-this mess should have been a huge red flag. For example, the dining room was immaculate for the showings set for Easter, but the refrigerator was filthy, and the champagne bottle sitting amongst the mess didn’t help on our first day, in fact it felt like, “Have fun, we are out of here!” If you want to see the mess that was left in the master bathroom (yikes) CLICK HERE. Anyway, it’s all cleaned up, now 😊. Let’s move on to figuring out what to do with this room…I guess we could call it the “Mirror Lounge”…

Sifting Through Thrift Store Mirrors to Figure Out the Design

Before we get to the mirrors, I wanted to mention that my husband was the one who really didn’t care for the color of the room. I was “okay” with it, but it was a rather warm toned charcoal/green, and as you can see in our FAMILY ROOM ACCENT WALL MAKEOVER our favorite hues are on the cooler side.

Getting back to the mirrors…I definitely have a thing for them. Mirrors reflect what is in front of them, so they can actually give the illusion of a window being there, when it’s not. Mirrors also reflect light which can be so beautiful! I am not going to go through each and every mirror, but I will say each one was either thrift store, my mother’s, my grandmother’s, or on clearance at either HomeGoods, or Kirkland’s. My husband and I had a blast one night searching for a few all over town…the weirder the shape, the happier we were. TIPS: ALWAYS CHECK OUT THE CLEARANCE SECTION IN ALL STORES. THRIFT STORES CARRY THE BEST MIRRORS EVER.

New Light Fixture for The Mirror Lounge

One last quick note before we get to hanging the mirrors, is that in the midst of all of this I finally came to terms with the fact that the light fixture was way too dramatic with all my mirrors. Not only was the light fixture huge, and caked in dust, it looked like a UFO at times 😆. I ended up selling it for $85 on FB Marketplace. Let me tell you, that baby was not easy to get down. Adios, buddy!

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Introducing Our Thrift Store Mirror Wall

Mirror, mirror on the wall, who’s the fairest of them all? Well, here we go…introducing our “Thrift Store Mirror Wall” after we completed the entire room, including the new light fixture, new paint color, and a little styling using things I already had.

Notice how I decided to go all the way up to the ceiling with the mirrors? I also decided to pull the sofa out about 1 foot so I could add a few mirrors behind it to give the illusion that the mirrors are almost like wallpaper. The mirrors keep going and going all the way from ceiling to floor 😊. Take note, I didn’t do the entire wall from left to right because I wanted the focus on the sofa, not the mirrors. EVERYTHING is focused around that sofa which is from Kirkland’s BTW.

Here’s a few more photos, and then I will leave a few tips I learned along the way while decorating with all of these rather large mirrors…

Designing Tips to Help You Create Your Thrift Store Mirror Wall

PATIENCE: When searching for mirrors for your thrift store mirror wall, don’t forget to start in your own home and use mirrors you may have forgotten about. Think about every single room in your home…are there any mirrors hiding in there??? Then visit local thrift stores and don’t expect to find your mirrors all at once. I was also lucky to have inherited a few of the mirrors from my mom, and grandmother-those are the best kind ❤️. Don’t forget FACEBOOK MARKETPLACE, too.

LAY THE MIRRORS ON THE FLOOR TO DESIGN YOUR WALL FIRST: I mentioned above how to do this 😉.

BALANCE: Keeping things balanced can be challenging when using so many large items, but my trick is to start with your biggest item (mine was the silver rectangle antique mirror that was my grandmother’s). I chose to off-center it off the sofa just a little, and then go around it with the rest.

MEASURE, BUT NOT TO BE PERFECT: There is no way to measure these mirrors so they are perfectly separated by the exact centimeters. Start with one pair and get a feel for how much space you desire between mirrors. After you get 2 up, put that 3rd one up at roughly the same distance. I am able to “eye” this, but if you have trouble, ask for a second pair of eyes to help, and remember that holes can be patched (WE PATCHED AND PAINTED AFTER WE FIGURED OUT WHERE THE MIRRORS WERE GOING).

DECIDE ON COLORS: I was going to stick to all brass/gold mirrors at first and just spray paint them to match, but I decided to let them stay their natural color.

DON’T BE AFRAID: Go behind the furniture with mirrors and/or up to the ceiling! Do hanging before you paint, this way you can adjust and take a couple days to see what you like. When you’re ready, patch holes you don’t need, and paint. Be sure to take a photo of the wall so you don’t forget where the mirrors go.

HOW TO HANG: Screws are best, and yes- anchors if there is no stud. Command strips are great for the smaller ones, but I mostly used screws. Command strips can be cut to be smaller to hold the mirror in place (see below) at the bottom.

USE A LEVEL: To get the mirror not only straight, but to keep it straight, first use a level, and then cut off a tiny part of a command strip and use on the bottom part of the back of the mirror to keep the mirror from moving while it’s hanging from the screw.

After I finished this post, it warmed up outside so stay tuned for our front porch makeover!

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