a well spent fifty three cents.

that's right, this project cost me exactly fifty three cents. like most good things do, it all started with a trip to buy shampoo.

i was driving down the highway. destination: ulta beauty. i just happened to pass the salvation army and noticed a glorious sign advertising that all products with a white price label were $.49 from 5:00 until 8:00 that evening. it was 4:30ish, so i killed some time at ulta (which is really easy to do) and headed over to the salvation army to browse the goods. after pawing my way through lots of cuh-rap, i noticed a nast plastic bag. i almost walked right passed it, except a tear in the bag revealed a reflective sparkle. and you know how easily distracted i am by shiny objects. when i opened the bag, the pitter in my heart pattered a little more quickly when i saw my refelction staring back at me in the surface of 10 dingy mirrors. so i bought that bag. i bought that bag good and hard.

what could i possibly want with 10 mismatched, cruddy mirrors? glad you asked. you see, i have this odd little wall.

here he is. in all of his weird, angled glory.

i have a thing for unique little mirrors, so this wall had previously been housing a couple that i had picked up here and there. one requirement that a mirror must meet in order to make it into my home is it must cost less than 2 bucks. i refuse to pay more...depending on the size.

but i digress. back to the mirror project. i decided to add to the three little mirrors that i already had and turn the little wall into a gallery of mirrors. you know i love me a gallery wall.

here's how the process went.

i started by organizing the mirrors on the floor. i am not a measurer, which does not always work out in my favor, but i did set out a tape measure so i knew how much width with which i had to work.

due to the fact that i have a ram rod of a dog who loves to step on things that i leave lying around and this project was bound to take a couple of hours, i decided to use a highly technical drafting technique to outline where each mirror should be placed. please excuse the janky paper.

some of the frames also needed a fresh coat of glossy white spray paint. you know, for unity's sake.

that's better. oh, and a note about spray painting mirrors. i HATE taping off the glass, so i just spray paint the whole thing. it takes just as much time to scrape off the spray paint from the mirror (and is strangely satisfying) as it does to tape off the edges, so i just use the spray and scrape technique.

and here's the "finished" product. i use the term finished loosely because i'd still like to add mirrors when i find them, but it looks a lot better than three lonely mirrors. sorry the picture is so dark. maybe i'll snap one when there's some daylight. don't hold your breath.