Giving Credit Where Credit is Due

My dear, old (by old, I mean we have known each other for 20+ years, not that she is old!) friend Cassie from Primitive and Proper has been my design guru of late. (We have been friends since middle school!) She is so creative with her furniture and crafts. When we moved in and after I decided to redo the dining room in a dark gray, I started asking her some questions and picking her brain. We were mainly talking about the dining room but I mentioned the mantel as well. She gave me a fantastic idea to create a sunburst mirror above my mantel. What's funny is that I had wanted a sunburst mirror forever. I had always liked this amazing one from Crate and Barrel, but couldn't stomach the $200 price tag. So, when Cassie mentioned it, she gave me the idea to actually make it on my own. Whaaaaattt? (I think that was my exact reaction to her!) She sent me a few images and how-tos from other blogs.

I contemplated it for a while and then...I did it. I made it!! I used this one from Dwellings by Devore as my inspiration. I didn't take any before and after pictures because when I made it back in October, I had no visions of writing a blog! But, here is the after!

(Please excuse the Christmas decorations)

So, while I can't show you step by step, I can at least tell you what I did to make it. Once I had the idea, I started scouring Target and Home Goods for a small round mirror that I could transform. I finally found one from Home Goods for $7. It was dark wood and had lots of little concentric circles around it, kind of like this one. Once I had the mirror, I went to the local grocery store and got two packages of bamboo skewers for just $1 each. I already had the glue gun and glue sticks.

Once I had my supplies, I got to working one night in the basement while we were watching HGTV. As I started gluing the skewers around the edge, it became quickly apparent that I had no idea what I was doing! It took several tries for me to get it right - at first I was putting the skewers RIGHT next to each other without any space so as it was going around, there were odd angles. My dear husband helped me to realize that there should be some space between the skewers. So, I de-glued and tried again. The next night I had to get another package of skewers (there are about 250 suckers on there!) Lastly, my brother spray painted it for me and voila, here we are. An awesome start burst mirror for about $15. A whole lot less money than those awesome Crate and Barrel ones!

I think that was the official start of my bug. Once I realized I could make that and it came out pretty decent, I realized that there was a lot more I could do on the cheap. Thanks, Cass!!!!!!!