Copper gilded round Captain's mirror

As you may have guessed by now I have a little obsession with copper, last year I was spraying everything gold now its copper! I have been swooning over some gorgeous copper Captain's mirrors on Pinterest, they are incredibly expensive and mostly in the US so my chances of getting one is very slim. I really love a good bargain and I must say the range of homewares at Kmart at the moment is simply fabulous! I picked up this round mirror for only $19 with the hope of recreating the look of the mirror I had found on Pinterest

Luckily I was able to remove the mirror from the frame, that made the job a whole lot easier.

I taped the strap to protect it from any wayward copper then set about applying the leafing size (glue) to the entire frame. I layered the copper leaf over the outside edges. The front was a little more tricky.....there is a ridge that runs around the frame and its almost impossible to get the copper leaf in between the ridge given my limited gilding skills and lack of patience at this point! The decision was made, it was going to be a distressed copper mirror!

During the gilding process

After the gilding was complete, I lightly sanded random areas to remove a small amount of the copper leaf to distress it. As the copper will tarnish over time its best to seal with a varnish or wax. I opted for a furniture wax as it gave a satin and more realistic brushed copper finish.

I just love it! I have had so many people commenting on how expensive it looks, not bad for around $30!

Jodie xx