Five Gorgeous Ways to Glam Up Vintage Mirror Frames

Vintage mirror frames—with all of the pretty curly-cues and that outdated gold finish—are abundant at yard sales and thrift stores. Glamorous in their day, vintage mirror frames don’t always fit with modern decorating styles.

But they can easily be up-cycled into beautiful home decor with a little Dixie Belle paint, glaze and gilding wax.

My mom recently scored a nice assortment of vintage mirror frames on one of her epic treasure hunting trips. She had a lot of fun glamming them up with products from Dixie Belle Paint Company, the no-VOC paint line we sell at our store All Things New Again in Leesburg, Virginia.

She mixed and matched Dixie Belle chalk mineral paint colors with glazes and gilding wax to create five beautiful paint finishes. Small items like vintage mirror frames are perfect for experimenting with paint colors and products. The new looks can easily be re-created on painted furniture.

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Five gorgeous Ways to Glam Up Vintage Mirror Frames with Dixie Belle paint, glaze and Gilding Wax

This post contains affiliate links for your vintage mirror glamming-up convenience.

1. In the Navy and Bronze

The first mirror is painted In The Navy, one of the new colors released by Dixie Belle earlier this year. (Here’s an article about another pretty new color called Farmhouse Green)

The rich navy color alone would have been pretty, but some vintage mirror frames are just calling for a little b-l-i-n-g. After the paint dried, my mom rubbed Bronze Gilding Wax all over the mirror to accentuate all of those amazing details.

TIP: Gilding wax can be applied many ways. A stencil brush is nice to work the product into little nooks and crannies on a detailed piece like a frame. I like to wrap an old t-shirt around my finger and apply. My mom skips the shirt and just dips her finger directly into the little pot of Gilding Wax. Any way you do it looks beautiful. It’s just a personal preference on how you like to apply it.

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2. Stormy Seas and Copper

Stormy Seas is one of those wonderful Dixie Belle colors that is hard to describe. Is it gray? Greenish? Gray with a hint of blue? Yes! Kind of. The answer depends on who you ask, but one thing is certain. Stormy Seas is a beautiful color—and it pairs perfectly with copper.

(OK. That’s two things. But they are both certain!)

On this vintage mirror frame, my mom brushed Copper Bronze Glaze over the Stormy Seas paint for a shimmery finish. Then she added Copper Gilding Wax over the details.

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3. The Gulf with Pearlescent Glaze and Turquoise Teal Gilding Wax

Turquoise-Teal Gilding Wax is one of my favorites! I used it on the vintage dresser I painted Sea Glass during our Paintcation 5-Day Furniture Painting Challenge this summer.

My mom used Turquoise-Teal Gilding Wax over another pretty aqua color called The Gulf.

But first she washed everything with Pearlescent Glaze for subtle, almost iridescent, shimmer.

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4. Dixie Belle Blue and Silver

You can never go wrong painting anything a pretty blue and Dixie Belle Blue never disappoints!

My mom also used Hi-Ho Silver Glaze and Silver Gilding Wax on this vintage mirror frame to make the details pop.

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5. Aubergine and Bronze

Here is another new color from Dixie Belle called Aubergine. I like to call it Purple for Grown-Ups. It is such a rich, sophisticated, royal shade of deep purple. Then my mom gave it a metallic finish with Copper Bronze Glaze and Bronze Gilding Wax.

Vintage mirror frames come in all sizes and are versatile for decorating your walls, of course.

But they also make beautiful little serving trays to use for function or simply to add another layer of interest to your home decor. Just be sure to apply felt pads to the backing to prevent scraping your furniture!

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Those are just five gorgeous ways to glam up vintage mirror frames. With Dixie Belle Paint products, the possibilities really are endless!

Which of these finishes is your favorite? Let us know in the comments.

~ Courtney

All Things New Again is a boutique furniture store and paint studio in Leesburg, Virginia (about an hour or so west of Washington, D.C.) and an authorized retailer of Dixie Belle Paint Company.

Gain the skills and confidence to paint like a pro at our Learn How to Paint Furniture Class.

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