Mirror, Mirror In The Driveway

I've mentioned the mirror project a couple of times recently and, in my last entry, I posted a couple of pictures of the mirror as it appeared when I got it. It definitely had potential, which is why it caught my eye to begin with, but it needed some work. The main problem I saw was that it suffered from multiple coats of latex exterior house paint. The paint stripper would really have to step up to the plate on this one.

I found the mirror at a yard sale. When I stopped at this particular yard sale, I didn't expect to find much. It looked like a typical baby clothes and Tupperware kind of yard sale. Nothing against Tupperware, of course. My yard saleing partner and brother-in-law, Joey, is a Tupperware nut. He buys pretty much any vintage Tupperware he can find. The more obscure the piece, the better. He's got salt and pepper shakers, ham keepers, cake carriers and these.

Remember those? I'm always on the lookout for Tupperware stuff for him. Once, I even found him some animal refrigerator magnets in the original box. I'm a pretty good brother-in-law.

But, back to the original subject. The yard sale didn't look like it was going to have much to offer, but, I was there so I really had nothing to lose by checking it out.

I looked around for a minute and then I saw the mirror. It was sitting in the driveway, leaned against some other stuff. When I got close enough to inspect it, I liked the way it looked and I was pretty sure that it was fairly old. They weren't asking a lot of money for it, so I paid the lady and loaded it in the car.

When I unloaded my haul for the day, I put the mirror in the room formerly known as "The Office" (now Jack's room-See the new shelves post for an explanation of what rooms became what). It stayed there for many months until we unearthed it during the 3-way room switch about two weeks ago. Seeing it again, I decided that it had collected enough dust. It was time to do something with it.

So, this is what I had to work with. It was pretty, but it was smothered in black paint.  The detail in the carving at the top was greatly diminished by the paint.  Take a look.

 

Along the bottom portion of the frame, there was some white paint that was creeping through the black and onto the glass.

There's also a mark on the back that's either I50 or 150. Not sure which and my research has turned up no answers.

So, the first thing I did was to take the frame apart. After I removed the back, the front part of the frame came apart in three pieces. I then applied paint stripper to the three front pieces. I elected not to do any restoration on the back piece because it was basically a cheap piece of lightweight wood. In addition to that, the back wouldn't be seen so I wasn't terribly concerned with it.

Anyway, I picked the coldest day of the year to commence stripping in the garage...I know what you're thinking. If THAT happened, and I'm not saying it did or didn't, there are no pictures, so just put it out of your mind.

But, yes...it was COLD. I believe the high that day was 33. Now, I don't like cold weather. When I say, "I don't like cold weather," I don't mean it in the same way as, "I don't like collard greens." Collard greens don't really taste good to me but they don't make my body tense up and hurt all over. But, I was determined to make some progress, regardless of the miserable conditions.

 

I put on the latex gloves and started brushing on the paint stripper. I used a semi-paste stripper that actually sticks to the piece. I had tried liquid stripper on other  projects, but it just didn't get hot enough to melt the paint. The liquid stripper may work on some things, but I've never had much luck with it. The black paint bubbled up and came right off, revealing a layer of off-white paint. Another round of stripper. The off-white paint was a little more resistant, but after a couple of applications of stripper and some serious scraping, it came off.

White paint underneath.

Maybe I should have opted for sandblasting.

But, since that wasn't really an option, I stuck with the stripper. I must confess that every time I use the word stripper, I have to fight the urge to make some kind of off-color joke. Admittedly, sometimes I don't put up much of a fight. That makes me a typical man who never matured past the 7th grade. My wife will confirm this. The great thing about my immaturity is that I have a son, so I get to pass it on to him. I'm sure that nature would probably halt his maturity around 12 years of age, but I suppose my ego wants to think that I have some input in the matter. Either way, the Spillman name will live on to laugh at potty humor for another generation!

There I go, digressing again...

 After brushing on stripper :) approximately 47 separate times, hand sanding and using various tools that would make the sadistic dentist in Little Shop of Horrors proud, I finally got most of the paint off the frame. The details in the carving were way more visible and impressive. Coming along nicely!

 

I had to fill a few spots that had some minor damage with Minwax Stainable Wood Filler and then it was time to stain it. I decided to go with Minwax #225 Red Mahogany. I like the way it looks, but I had trouble getting it to dry. It claimed dry times of 2-6 hours. Maybe the hyphen was inserted by mistake. But, even 26 hours didn't do the trick. I finally decided to walk on the wild side and spray the polyurethane, Minwax Fast Drying Clear Gloss. 

Here are the tools of the trade along with an empty Publix strawberry yogurt carton. Tanya likes her yogurt and, when she gets to the bottom of a carton, she gives it to Bacchus and he cleans it out quite thoroughly. He left this one under my table, so I used it to catch the dust that I raked off the table. He's a great dog and he's scary smart, but I just can't get him to clean up after himself. But, the same is true of the kids. Now that I think about it, he doesn't generate as much laundry, he doesn't ask for money, he doesn't steal my parking place...I could go on for a while. Of course, my kids don't pee in the yard. Ok, maybe Jack does on occasion, but as least the girls understand the benefits of indoor plumbing. Maybe there's hope for them after all.

Oh yeah, the mirror. Here's how it turned out.

And, the carving.

I think this is light years better than the black version. The picture doesn't quite have the resolution that you need to fully appreciate it, but you get the idea. Scroll back up to the black one and then look at this one. No comparison.

As I was reassembling it, I noticed something that I missed when I was taking it apart. On the back of the mirror was a stamp with the manufacturer and the date.

March 10, 1900. That means this thing is 112 years old. I can't read the middle part, but it looks like "Himes Thener Class 0" or something like that. If anyone has info on it, please let me know. The bottom part, obviously, says that it was made in France.

I'd love to know how this thing made its way from France to Decatur, AL over the course of 112 years. I'd love to know who has looked into the mirror and what it's seen over those 112 years. Women brushing their hair before bed. Teenage girls primping before a date. Young men tying their ties on Sunday morning. This mirror has stories to tell.

For many years to come.

I love what I do.