Taking Down a Builder's Mirror

{Before I get to the fun stuff, I need to send a special shout out to all the working moms out there.  I normally only venture out of the house into the workforce on Fridays.  However, I've been filling in this week and last.  Oy vey!!  It is kicking my butt.  I feel as if my house isn't functioning efficiently, despite my husband helping as much as he has.  There isn't enough time in the day to do everything (there isn't even when I'm home 6 days a week) and I've only doing half days.  That's why I haven't filled you in on the fun stuff I've been working on.  My point, whether you are a mom that works from home or a mom that leaves the house for work, YOU ROCK!!!}

Now, on to the show.

Does your home have any builder's grade mirrors??  Every bathroom in our house has one.  People are getting smart, though, and framing those mirrors to add character to them.  I'd love to do that in our master bathroom. Add that to the long list of things to do around the house to spruce it up.  The mirror in our half bath is a different story.  It is not a standard rectangle mirror.  It is an arch.  You can't easily frame an arch.  There wasn't anything WRONG with it, but there was just no character to it.  That means it had to go.

The first thing I figured out was that the mirror was glued to the wall.  Gee thanks mister builder, make this super hard on me.  I looked online for how to get it down and asked around.  I got the same general answer.

Step 1:  Tape off the mirror
Step 2:  Take a metal putty knife & rubber mallet around the edge to loosen the glue.
Step 3:  Pull and hope it doesn't shatter

YIKES!!

I called over my friend Jessica for some help and we tried these steps.  It didn't work. Step 2 didn't get us any where. It was clear immediately that all of the glue was in the middle of the mirror.  The wall that the mirror is on is very narrow and there is little to no clearance to access underneath the mirror from the sides.

This is the half bath in all it's glory.  I did not edit this picture so you can see how there is no light in the room and why I needed to paint the walls.  This color is awful.  It puts off an orange glow that just needed to go!

It was time to get creative.  I went on a search for a piece of thin flat metal that I could slide behind the mirror.  You'll never guess what I used.  A metal piece that you put over the joint where two floors meet.  It was long & flat and happened to be the only thing we owned that was long and flat.  It was the only thing that fit behind the mirror.  We probably looked like crazy girls, but here's what we did:

I stood on a step ladder in front of the mirror.  Jessica stood behind me with her hands braced up against the mirror.  I took the metal floor joint and slide it down behind the mirror.  I beat on it with the rubber mallet.  I'd take it out and put it behind the mirror again in a different spot.  Once we got the hang of what we were doing, it really only took about 5 minutes.  The problem was that it took over an hour to find the right piece of metal that fit behind the mirror.  Oh well.  It worked!!  The mirror was off and in one piece.  No one got hurt either :) Man oh man was that some nasty black glue holding it on.

That's what it looked like after the mirror was gone.  Thankfully after some sanding and patching, it wasn't a big mess.  I put up a new mirror after painting and you can't even see any blemishes.  These pictures even give you a sneak peak of the new bathroom color.  The painting is finished and the new mirror is up but the bathroom isn't completely finished.  After a trip to Ikea next weekend, I'll be able to unveil the new space.  It's coming together so nicely :)

That's how you take down a builder's grade mirror.  If you try it, hope it comes down as easily!