Recently I decided I needed some new vintage-thing on my surroundings. Looking for ways and ideas, I stumble with different tutorials to make a mirror look old. But most of them were either to difficult or expensive. 

The one that caught my attention was an easy tutorial on how to do a Faux Mercury Glass from Take the Side Street. She explains it so well and easy! The best part is that you’ll only need to buy the Krylon Looking Glass spray because the rest it’s just a mirror and vinegar. 

Hands on task

Although the tutorial was for a clear glass vase, I adapted the idea to some mirrors I bought. Here’s the list of materials I used:

1. 1 or several mirrors (these are 12”x12”)


2. 1 bottle for water


3. vinegar


4. Krylon Looking Glass


5. Contact paper

In this tutorial I’m only going to apply the vintage effect to the borders of the mirrors. So for this, I cut several squares of contact paper (one for each mirror) size 8”x8” since I only wanted the borders to be 2” wide. Now measure the mirrors looking for to center to adhere the Contact paper squares.

After all this, get ready to start spraying. Let the spray cover all the borders. I left it to dry for about 2-5 minutes because if left to long, the paint will set in and the effect wont work. It should feel almost dry to the touch. 

Proceed to spray with a solution made with water and vinegar (1:2). Wait 1 minute and with a dry paper towel, start dabbing just enough to see some of the back mirror. The idea is for it to have and old look, not scratch or rub.

Afterward I added another coat of spray. But this time I did not let it dry. Immediately I sprayed it with the water/vinegar solution and then let the drops rest for 2-5 minutes. This last layers brought an interesting surface to the mirror. 

This is the final result! Hope you like it. If you try this technique let me know how it went.