There are simple and cheaper ways to update your bathroom mirrors without remodeling (breaking down old mirrors, patching up dry walls, and painting).
I have those cheap large NO architectural detail mirrors (construction grade) glued onto my dry walls. My husband and I are not handy people, and we do not want to spend thousands of dollars remodeling our four bathrooms. Don’t get me wrong I would love to do it, but with this economic down turn we (like most of you) have to count our nickels and dimes.
I went to our local Lowe’s store, and found Mirror Edging or Mirredge bathroom product (similar products are also available online). They are usually packed in pairs – wooden or acrylic edging, corner plates, and seam plates. The 59 ½” X 1 ½” Mirredge stripes run around $16, 36” X 1 ½” strips around $12, corner plates (set of 4) cost around $10, and the seam plates (2 per pkg) runs around $8.
If I have bought it for manufactured suggested price for my all four bathrooms I would have spent around $75 per bathroom; which comes down to $300. This price does not include the Mirredge adhesive – runs around $3.50 for a small tube of glue. When I talked with the Lowe’s associate he told me I would need at least 2 glues per bathroom, so another $28.
Well, I was not about to spend $300. Lucky for me the store was discontinuing all the Royal Birch Wood-grain products; so I packed up my cart. They definitely were not pretty, and I was not going to further down grade our bathroom conditions, so I purchased black spray paint and spray them all up.
Also, since I was too cheap to buy the Mirredge adhesive I used Liquid Nail 601 for $5 a bottle (according to the pamphlet it was okay to use either LN 601 or 701).
So, with my cheap bargain mirror edges, corner plates, seam plates, glue and spray paint I spent roughly $50 to do my all four bathrooms in the house.
It was a slow going process since I had to spray all of my mirror edge products with black spray paint, but I think it was definitely worth it.
If you do not like these products you can also use regular picture frames and put it on top of the existing mirrors — just make sure there are in proper proportion. For instance, if you have large mirrors don’t use 8X10 frames; you know what I mean?
Another alternative is using those man-made trims. They come in many decorative details and sizes, and they are very light; which is perfect for this job. Just remember, the more ornamental it is the more expensive it will get.
My husband loves the end result, and our bathrooms look finished.
