It's okay to change your mind (or not know what to do in the first place!).

So, you all remember the mirror I creeped out of the guys and showed you a few weeks ago?  Well, if not, you can read about it here.

As a brief recap, I found this gold mirror:

Looking at it closely, some of the gold leaf was flecking off, and you could see the deep red beneath.

Anyhow, I love the ornate details of the mirror, but I could not handle that gold.  I had to change it.  Fast.  But I didn't know what color I really wanted it.  I thought my room could use some black to pull it together, and I had a can of black spray paint already, so I decided black it would be!

I've seen a lot of people tape off mirrors and paint them, but with this mirror the backing was screwed on, and the mirror adhesive inside was so old that it had practically peeled away from the mirror itself.  It was easier to unscrew it and remove the mirror to paint the frame.

Then I took it outside, and sprayed it black.

Of course, that little can I had didn't cut it, and it was flat, so I bought a can of black gloss and sprayed over it again.  After it dried, I put it back together and carried it up to my room.

I. HATED. IT.  I thought it looked creepy.  It made me think of witchy fingers coming out of a mirror.  Yep.  I'm weird...but that's how I felt, and I knew it had to change...but to what?  

I'm struggling with colors in my room.  I love the grey and white, and how neutral they are.  I love my yellow dresser.  But before I even started working on my master bedroom, I picked out my bedding.  I went with the Style & Co. Artisan line.  I love it, and before I started planning this room I really needed some pizzazz in there.  Now that I have it though, I'm afraid of getting too much color, and making my room look like  a circus.

(What?  You see ugly carpet?? In MY ROOM?!!  No...no...that's your imagination.  Oh, you still see it?  Okay, you're right.  It's ugly, and it's going to meet it's maker soon.)

See my black headboard and night stands?  Those are also like that because I can't decide what color to paint them.  I keep going back and forth between a darker grey, and a cream.  What color do you think I should do?  I think someone should photoshop it with those two colors and help me make my choice!

Anyway, you can see what I'm working with, color-wise.  Regardless of all that, I decided to paint it blue.  Turquoise-y blue.  It's just paint, afterall, and if I've learned one thing through this, it's that paint is easy to change...especially when it's $3.25 a can and comes with a handy little spray nozzle.

Here it is, bright blue.

Yikes.  Obviously that wasn't going to work out either, so I brushed some stain on, and let it soak down into the crevasses.

I wiped it off with a damp cloth, and that left me with this:

And guess what?  I STILL didn't like it.  Still too flat.  So, then I took some black paint and mixed it with some clear mixing glaze.

I painted it on the same way as I did the stain, and wiped it off with a damp cloth.

Getting better, right?  But since I've been so non-commital to this so far, it'd only be right that I still not be happy with it, so to keep in the same theme- I still didn't like it.  But at this point, I didn't know what to do to it!  I'd painted it, repainted it, stained it, glazed it.  What else was there?

Enter Mom.  She told me to sand it a little to distress it more.  Okay, well, sure- usually I'd do this, but this is a Syroco plastic/resin frame.  I didn't think I COULD sand it without damaging it, but I'd done everything else and I'd decided that either I just didn't like this mirror as much as I thought I did in the first place, or that it really did still need that little extra depth.  So, I listened to my mama.

Guess what folks?  Momma's always right.  Don't forget it.  She is.

I sanded the high points with a fine sanding sponge, which brought through mostly the black, but in certain spots it also brought through the gold, and some of the red beneath the gold.  I put it back together, hung it on the wall, and guess what?

I LOVE it.

Don't you?  I think the color is perfect.  And you know what?  If I hadn't changed my mind and painted it blue from black, when I went through and distressed (thanks, Mom!) it wouldn't be black that showed through, it'd just be gold.  So really, it's okay to play, and experiment, and change your mind until you're happy.  Never settle until it's right for you!