Here Comes the Sun

I have always really liked sunburst mirrors but have never really liked their price tags and/or was too scared to buy one in case my house couldn’t pull it off – kind of like how I don’t think I could pull off a look like harem pants. I recently was turned on to Pinterest which is a plethora of ideas and things seen on the internet and you can keep track of all the things you like by creating a “virtual pin board.” I saw that someone had made a sunburst mirror – and I really liked the look of it and upon further review I saw that it was made from shims. If you would have asked me what shims were a year ago I probably would have corrected you and asked if you meant shins - the body part. However, since we have been giving our home the makeover of its life I have come across shims a couple times – they are thin pieces of wood that are used to stabilize door frames or dishwashers (which is what we used them for). I decided to tackle the project since I knew that shims were not expensive and that way if I hated the mirror or my house couldn’t pull it off then I wouldn't feel guilty for not hanging it up.
Supplies:
· Wreath forms made from MDF – you can get these at a craft store like Michaels and I got the 3 sizes they had in stock 6”, 12” and 18”
· Shims – buy these at a Hardware store, they are kept in the lumber area
· Round mirror – I used a 10 inch mirror but kind of wish I had a bigger one (this one was left over from when I was playing around with wedding centerpieces)
· Very strong glue – I used Gorilla Wood Glue since it was what we had on hand and was a really good choice. I am not sure if hot glue would have held up as well.

I was inspired by the mirror that I found at the blog 26 to Life

I actually ended up using the 2 smaller rings because with the largest ring it would have been a monstrosity. I began attaching the shims in a "clock pattern" so they would be even and filling in the gaps like this:

While I waited for it to dry I wanted to make sure that the mirror part was attaching to the shims so I searched the house for the heaviest book I could find and the winner was my tax textbook from graduate school. I remembered it being a lot heavier though when I was in school so I put a weight on it just in case.

Now I have an awesome mirror for our guest room that I really love and looks so much more expensive than it was. Even HB loves it – says it looks awesome and that it reminds him of a sunflower which I love since they remind me of Kansas.