DIY Starburst Mirror

We recently purchased a house.  It's been so fun to look around and get ideas on how I want to decorate each room.  For my bedroom I wanted to tone down the colors a little and make it more bright and inviting.  We had black and red as our main colors and although I loved them, after 10+ years it was time for a change.

I decided on gray, white, and silver.  We kept all of our original furniture and decided to leave it the black that it already was because I still love our bedroom furniture.  I had a few things that I've saved over the years and a few other things that I've purchased in the last few months.  Slowly, slowly it started to come together.  One thing that was missing was something to hang on the wall above the bed.

I've been on google and pinterest just looking around and finally decided I wanted some type of mirror up there.  I love the starburst mirrors, but for the price tag I just couldn't justify buying one.  Pinterest is all about DIY and so I started thinking that there had to be someone who had come  up with a tutorial on a starburst mirror, and I was right.  There are lots and lots of ideas, but none of them were quite what I was looking for.  I incorporated a few of the ideas together and came up with something that works for me.  It was easy and inexpensive to make and I love how it turned out.

Materials Needed

5" round mirror (I found mine at Joann's for $2.50)
2 pieces of foam board (I got mine at Walmart for $2.00 each)
1 - 16 inch ceiling medallion (bought online at home depot for $14.00)
1 scrap piece of wood 8x8 or similar (I used the back of an old picture frame that was laying around)
1 can spray paint (any color approx. $4.00)
Glue
Picture hanger (I had some leftover from a different project)

1.  First decide on how wide you want your rays to be.  You can make your own or use my pattern here.  I needed 8 for this project.  

2.  Trace your pattern onto the foam board.

3.  Using a utility knife, cut out each piece.  This part takes a little time.  Make sure you have a cutting board or something underneath your foam board while you are cutting so you don't ruin your counter tops or table surface.  You will also need to be sure to press hard so that you cut through the foam board in one clean cut.  The last thing to remember on this part is to have a sharp, fresh blade.  I tried a few using an old blade and it left the edge all jagged and horrible.

After you have your rays cut out, the you can start assembling your mirror.

4.  Mark your board of where you want the rays to be.  Remember, there is not right or wrong way to do this.  It's your mirror so make it look the way you want it.  You can add as many rays as you want.  I used 8 in total but that is the look I was going for.

Before you start gluing things down permanently, this is when you will want to take a minute and attach the picture hanger to the back of your board.  I learned the hard way.  I put the whole thing together first, including paint and mirror.  Then I tried to attach the hanger.  Let me just tell you, that was the wrong thing to do since I ended up scraping the front of the mirror a little and bending one of the rays.  I tried to use tacky glue to attach the hanger but it wasn't strong enough.  In the end I used monkey glue and it worked.  So please, learn from my mistake and attach the hanger first.  Ok - rant over, moving on.

5.  Attach hanger

6.  Glue your rays where you want them.  I glued one layer down first to my scrap of wood, then I glued the next layer down to the 1st layer of rays.  You want this to have a layered effect.  It gives it some depth.

7.  Next, glue the ceiling medallion on to the rays.

8.  Now you are going to paint your project.  Make sure you are in a well ventilated area.  It's cold here this tie of year so I put down a plastic drop cloth and sprayed it in my garage.  Let it dry completely.

9.  When it's dry, glue the mirror into the center of the medallion.  Let it dry completely.

10.  Hang and enjoy!

That's it, easy project for less than about $25.  That's way better than the $150+ I was looking at before I decided to make my own.  If you want to make the pillows, you can find them here.