Look for Less Design Challenge

Welcome to the first ever Look for Less Design Challenge! Today, myself and six other amazing DIY'ers are sharing some great projects that we DIY'ed as part of our Look for Less Design Challenge.

The Challenge idea is to find something you'd love to buy but is out of your price range, and then DIY it for less!

If you've been around for long, you know that this is right up my alley.

My Look for Less project was DIY'ing this West Elm inspired herringbone floor mirror.

With the help of Justin (of course),  we were able to DIY this over-sized floor mirror for only $36 as compared to West Elm's $549 version!! I'd like to say that it was a fun and simple DIY project, but it wasn't even close. This project took the pair of us thirteen hours to complete.  You can only imagine the love annoyance joy that Justin felt when I took him away from our home remodel for a "quick and easy" DIY project. Ha. Oops!

But even though it was hard work, I'd much rather spend 13 hours and $36 on this herringbone floor mirror than fork over $549!

In case you're as crazy as I am, here's how we did it:

We started with the oversized floor mirror which we found at Lowes for $25. Justin then took 2x4's and cut them to size to surround the mirror, cutting at 45 degree angles with a miter saw.

He then used his brand new table saw to cut grooves into the 2x4's at 1/8" x 1/2" to slide the edges of the mirror into.

Then after securing each of the four corners with wood glue and screws, he sanded down all the sides so I could start on the finish work. This was the time that we had to move the project inside because it was sooo incredibly cold out!

Now it's my turn and where the hard part comes in.

First, I painted the face of the frame white with paint I had laying around the house.

Then, I measured and cut out millions of little pieces of blue painters tape and placed them on the face of the frame. Looking back, I probably should have just created a stencil to paint the herringbone design, but what fun is that?

I then painted the face of the frame navy blue, and because I wanted the navy to be a bit more muted similar to the West Elm example, I whitewashed the entire face of the frame, using this whitewashing tutorial I found on Pinterest.

After letting that dry, I then stained the outside and inside edges of the frame with natural wood stain so it was a nice, light color. The one coat of varnish - and we're done!

Whew. That was a lot. But what do you think? Was it worth the 13 grueling hours of hard work?

Make sure to check out the other challenge bloggers and their amazing projects too!

P.S. Don't forget to enter my giveaway for a chance to win two trendy tea towels from The Shapes & Colors Textiles! Enter through this post.  

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