How to make a baguette with your own hands on a mirror from simple materials

What you need to make a frame for a mirror

First of all, to make a frame you need an idea. Depending on it, the material for work is selected. You also need the mirror itself, since the frame will have to be adjusted to its shape and size.

To make a frame you need an idea, material and the mirror itself.

In addition to the idea and materials, you also need to know the requirements for mirror framing, which differ depending on the room and location in which it will be located:

There is always moisture in the bathroom. Here, the optimal frame is made of moisture-resistant materials: plastic, polyurethane, foam. If metal is selected, then only stainless alloy or galvanized steel. It is better not to use wood for framing. As a last resort, hardwood, well-impregnated with an antiseptic, is suitable.
Near radiators and other heating devices, opposite the window where sunlight enters, hang a frame made of materials that do not respond to thermal expansion. Plastic will not work here.
If the frame is opposite the window, its material must be resistant to UV rays. You can apply staining with a special protective composition.
Dust constantly accumulates on the frame. The framing material should be easy to care for and allow cleaning with a damp or dry cloth.

The frame must fit into the interior of the room and be harmoniously combined with the design style.

Mirror, baguette and interior

There are many things you need to think about before purchasing or making your own mirror. More important factors include:

room to place the frame;
style and decorative element;
size, shape of baguette;
its color.

Accommodation

The design of the baguette for the mirror simply must be in harmony with the decor of the room. Plastic and other polymer materials will look best in bathrooms and children's rooms. Wooden products are placed in the kitchen, living room, bedroom, but when choosing, they focus more on the type of furniture.

For places with high humidity, wood can also be used, but care must be taken to protect it in advance. For safety and longevity, the wood is treated with antiseptic impregnations and coated with paint or varnish.

Style

Rooms designed in a minimalist style can be decorated with frames made of any material - wood, MDF, film-coated. However, the most suitable candidate would be a laconic aluminum baguette, which fits perfectly into any space.

Eco-style allows you to use a simple wooden frame. The baroque or ethnic direction makes it possible to decorate this natural material with “lace”, and the baguette can be quite “spreading” in appearance.

Size

Large frames in any room will make the mirror an eye-catching object. The size of the glass in this case is an equally important factor. If it is small, then a massive frame can focus attention on it. Small baguettes framing large mirrors, on the contrary, do not look the best.

The design of this decorative element depends on its role in space. If there is no desire to place the main emphasis on the product, then there is no need for wide frames. Fancy shapes and unusual design of baguettes are best suited for classic interiors.

Color

Too bright, intrusive colors are not welcome, as in this case the baguette will literally catch your eye. Brightness and strong contrast with other decorative elements are also not recommended. The color of the baguette and the gamma of the room should be friends - harmonize or complement each other.

The plastic frame in the bathroom can be only a little brighter than the wall decoration. A baguette for a nursery should be the same color as the dominant tone in the room. Products for the living room must be combined with the palette of the room and not look out of place in the interior.

What can you use to make a frame for a mirror?

The choice of materials is extensive. In principle, anything that can be processed will do. To create a beautiful frame for a mirror with your own hands, elements of finishing materials are often used. For example, ceiling skirting boards have a pattern. A mirror in such a frame will look rich. The following types of materials are considered the most in demand:

Polyurethane is a lightweight, durable, moisture-resistant material. He looks beautiful. When you get tired of the frame color, you can repaint it. Polyurethane is flexible and moisture resistant
A metal frame is chic if it is embossed or forged. You can make a frame in a modern style from aluminum baguette. Chasing or forging will give the interior a rich look
A mirror framed with mirror glass is now at the peak of popularity. The frame is assembled from many small mirrors and glass elements with multi-colored coating. Framing with mirror glass will give the product a modern style
Leather frames are similarly at the peak of popularity. They are made voluminous by filling them with foam rubber or padding polyester. You can use not only natural, but also artificial leather
Rope is an original and cheap decorative element. For wet rooms, frames are made of artificial rope. Framing with linen rope is suitable for a dry room. The rope is laid in rows or braided
Polyurethane foam is considered a weak frame material. It is used as a decorative frame. Most often, small details are glued onto the foam, for example, shells, stars, beads. Framing made of polyurethane foam does not withstand exposure to sunlight
Wood is a classic material. Modern impregnations and paints make it possible to turn a wooden frame into a work of art. The beautiful texture of wood is emphasized by coloring impregnations
Gypsum itself is fragile. It is rarely used as the main material for a frame, but it makes an excellent decoration. All sorts of curls are poured from plaster and glued onto a rigid frame. There are molds that allow you to pour frames entirely, but the product is heavy. Gypsum stucco molding is painted with colored or clear varnish

There are many other materials that can be used for crafts, such as popsicle sticks, matches, toothpicks, bottle caps.

Advice! It is optimal to cast a plaster frame for a floor-mounted mirror. Due to its heavy weight, the structure can fall off the wall.

Let's figure out which type of baguette is best suited for a mirror

1. Wooden frame (photo 1) - undoubtedly a classic of the genre, it has been used at all times, creating extraordinary comfort and coziness. In the production of expensive wooden baguettes, the most valuable types of wood are used: primarily oak and beech, as well as maple. Spruce, pine and larch are for cheaper options. To make a baguette with your own hands for a mirror, you can choose a ready-made baguette of any width, texture, with a colored coating or aged, decorated with intricate patterns, stucco molding, golden foil, emphasizing luxury, or, on the contrary, simplicity and laconicism (photo 2). The disadvantage of a wooden molding for a mirror is its low plasticity, significant price, and difficulty in processing if you do not have experience working with wood and do not have special devices and tools.

2. Plastic, polystyrene foam or polystyrene foam (photo 3) - the most budget options, easy to process and ideal for first experiments in making a baguette with your own hands on a mirror. Baguettes made from these materials are not only financially economical, but also have a number of undeniable advantages: they are resistant to moisture, can withstand significant loads, are more flexible and lighter than wood. At the same time, current technologies make it possible to copy not only the natural color, but also the texture of any wood or granite. A serious disadvantage is low strength and fragility; during processing they easily break and crumble, and are a fire hazard. Therefore, it is not always recommended to frame heavy and large mirrors with these materials.

Photo 1 – Wooden frame for a mirror

Photo 2 - Types of production baguette

Photo 3 - Foam baguette

Photo 4 - Aluminum frame for mirror

3. Aluminum baguette (photo 4) is a modern material, quite durable and lightweight. It comes in different widths, with a matte, shiny, textured surface. Using special varnishes or anodizing methods, aluminum can be produced in a wide variety of colors. Significant advantages include: resistance to moisture and low temperatures, increased strength. Despite its simplicity, a do-it-yourself baguette on an aluminum mirror looks elegant and expensive.

How to make a frame for a mirror with your own hands

The process of making any frame begins with a design. First a sketch is created. It will help you visually assess whether such a frame will suit the mirror. After solving all the nuances, they calculate how much material is needed and what tools are needed for the work.

How to make a mirror frame from wood

Using lumber is not always convenient, since you need a tool for further processing. If you have the idea of assembling a frame for a wall mirror with your own hands, then it is better to take a wooden plinth, platband, or lining element. The workpieces have already been processed on the machine. They just need to be connected into a frame. If the frame will hang in a room where the interior is decorated in a rustic or Mediterranean style, the blanks are taken from old ones, for example, from a picket fence or a disassembled door.

Wooden frames are easier to make for a rectangular mirror

If there are no old pieces, the new wood will have to be artificially aged. Alternatively, you can simply open it with colored varnish or stain. The patterns on the frame are made using the decoupage method. The frame is covered with laminated paper napkins and opened with transparent varnish.

It is better to assemble a wooden frame in a rectangular shape. The blanks are cut to the required length, cuts are made, and they are placed on wood glue. Reinforce the joints with self-tapping screws, but in such a way as to hide the caps. The finished product is subjected to grinding and finishing.

How to make a frame for an oval mirror

It is difficult to make a circle and an oval from wood. A mirror of this shape is framed according to a different principle. You will need a rigid base made of thick cardboard, but it is better to take fiberboard, MDF or thin plywood. A fragment in the shape of a mirror, only larger in size, is cut out of a sheet with a jigsaw. The sides protruding beyond the borders will serve as the basis of the frame, where all the beauty will be glued.

Advice! The blank can be cut not just oval, but shaped with curls.

The mirror is glued with a hot gun onto a plywood base.

The next stage of assembling a frame for a round or oval mirror with your own hands is to make a hinge. It is glued with a hot gun to the back of the plywood. The product will be hung on the wall with a loop. Now comes the important marking process. The mirror is placed on a plywood blank. They are positioned so that protrusions of the same width are obtained on all sides. It is outlined with a pencil and removed. Press glue from a hot glue gun onto the plywood. Adhering to the markings, glue the mirror to the base.

The sides protruding along the perimeter will act as a frame. For decoration, stick on rope, beads, and shells. Old jewelry and any small trinkets will do.

How to make a carved frame for a mirror

Wood carving is a complex art. You will need skill and a set of appropriate tools. Each master makes carved frames in his own way. For an idea, you can take a master class on creating a prefabricated structure:

8 blanks are cut from processed lumber: 4 for the base of the frame and 4 for the carved ornament. From four processed slats, a frame for a rectangular mirror is assembled with your own hands, fastening the corners with wood glue and wooden dowels.
All angles must be strictly 90°. Each dowel is driven into a through hole, and the excess is sawed off with a hacksaw.
On the other four blanks intended for ornamentation, patterns are cut out with chisels. Each carved element is attached to the end of the frame. For fixing, glue and dowels are used in the same way, only the holes for them are drilled non-through.
If desired, the carved pattern can be carved on the front side of the rectangular base. A loop for hanging is attached to the back with self-tapping screws. The carved frame is opened with varnish and a mirror is inserted. On the back side it can be fixed with plywood strips secured with self-tapping screws to a wooden base

How to make a frame for a mirror from a baguette

The advantage of baguette as a material for a frame is the presence of a pattern. You will get a beautiful frame, but only rectangular.

A rectangular frame is made from a baguette

The length of the blanks is marked on the surface of the baguette. To get right corners of the frame, the baguette is placed in a miter box and cut at an angle of 45 degrees. The blanks are connected to each other. Check that each corner of the frame is 90 degrees. All parts are glued together with a hot gun and glued to the mirror. The cracks are sealed with putty and the frame is painted.

Advice! When using a metal baguette, the frame blanks are connected with special steel corners.

DIY frame for floor mirror

A large mirror will require a strong frame. It is better to make it from wood. To process lumber, you will need a router, plane, and sander.

Technology:

Assembling a frame for a large mirror with your own hands begins with cutting the blanks to size. The slats are processed with a plane and polished. Find a perfectly smooth, knot-free surface that will go on the front side of the frame.
Using a milling cutter, select a groove along the ends of the bars. The mirror should fit freely into it, but not dangle. The blanks with grooves are placed in a miter box. The corners are cut off according to the markings. The parts are assembled into a frame, a mirror is inserted, the joints are glued, and connected with dowels. While the glue hardens, the frame is clamped with clamps.
The legs are attached to the end of the lower element of the frame made of blocks with self-tapping screws. The frame is opened with stain and clear varnish.

DIY illuminated mirror frame

The process of creating a backlit frame:

To make such a design, you will need mirror glass, where the reflective coating has been removed along the edges in the form of some kind of pattern. It is in these places that the illumination will be illuminated through the clean glass.
On the back side of the mirror glass, two frames are assembled from aluminum blanks. For edging the first level, use a corner. It forms the body. The second level edging is made with a profile for the LED strip. All aluminum parts are glued to the back of the mirror glass with sealant or a hot gun.
Make your own hanging loops. Two pieces 2-3 cm long are cut from the corner, and a hole is drilled in one side shelf. The parts are glued with a hot gun to the first level frame.
The LED strip is cut to the length of each profile. Wires are soldered to live contacts. The LED strip is glued inside the profile. Wires connect it to the power supply, which is similarly located on the back side of the structure.
To make it convenient to turn on the backlight, a hole is drilled in one of the first-level frame elements and a push-button switch is inserted.
The mirror is hung on the wall. The connection to the electrical network can be made hidden or the cord and plug can be simply removed.

After applying voltage, bright illumination will appear from the side transparent edging of the mirror glass.

Important! For illumination, it is optimal to use a white LED strip.

DIY plaster frame for a mirror

There are two options for making edging. In the first case, the frame can be cast from plaster as a whole. However, it will be difficult to find a mold of a suitable size for the existing mirror glass.

A solid plaster frame is poured into a special mold

It's easier to resort to another method. In the second option, you make your own frame for the hallway mirror using stamps. First, plywood or fiberboard is cut for the base. Mirror glass is glued onto the sheet. Along the perimeter of the wooden protruding edging, strips of plaster in the form of rocking chairs are laid. Taking a stamp or any object with a textured surface, squeeze out patterns. After hardening, the gypsum frame is painted with acrylic paint and opened with varnish.

How to make a frame for a mirror from platbands

Door trims have a finished surface. There is no need to carry out any additional actions with them. The platbands are simply cut to fit the sides of the rectangular mirror. The frame is formed exactly as from a regular tree.

You can join the platbands with even cuts or make cuts at an angle of 45o

If the platbands are made of MDF or plastic, then it is better to glue them together. You can place an overhead square on the back side of each corner and secure it with self-tapping screws.

How to make a frame for a mirror from plinth

Depending on the material used to make the baseboards, there are wooden, plastic and foam. According to the place of application - floor and ceiling. Each of them will serve as good material for a frame.

The plinth patterns highlighted with golden paint look gorgeous against a white background.

If the wooden plinth is thick, grooves for the mirror are cut out at the ends using a router. The frame assembly technology is similar to the floor model discussed above. Plastic and foam are not able to support mirror glass if hung from such a frame. Skirting boards are simply used for decorative framing. The blanks are glued along the edges of the mirror.

DIY forged mirror frame

Forging always looks beautiful, even if it is a mirror frame. However, such elements can only be made in a forge. Forged frames are usually ordered. When making a frame yourself, you purchase individual elements. Usually these are forged curls, leaves, and bunches of berries.

Forged frames can be made independently from individual elements

First, the base is welded from a profile or corner. The existing forging elements are placed on it. They are similarly fixed by welding. The metal frame is treated with an anti-corrosion primer and spray painted.

DIY polyurethane mirror frame

Polyurethane finishing elements are perfect for the frame if it will hang in a damp room or on a balcony. The advantage of the material is its flexibility, thanks to which the product can be given a creative shape with bends. In the traditional rectangular design, the frame is assembled in exactly the same way as from a foam or plastic baseboard. The blanks are simply glued onto a mirror or plywood base.

Acrylic paints are used to paint the frame.

It is optimal to decorate the frame with at least two color shades: the general background and highlight the pattern. Silver and golden sparkles will add originality. The final layer is applied with transparent varnish.

How to make a frame for a mirror from cardboard

For a dry room, you can come up with a cardboard frame for the mirror. They make it voluminous. Roll 4 tubes from cardboard and glue them together. When the glue has hardened, the workpieces are slightly flattened, but done smoothly to avoid creases. The tubes will take on a flat slatted shape. All that remains is to trim the corners and glue the rectangle.

You can decorate the cardboard frame with cereals

The finished frame is painted and covered with wallpaper or adhesive film. The grain decor looks beautiful. The front surface of the frame is smeared with glue and sprinkled with grains of different colors, for example, mustard and buckwheat.

DIY tile mirror frame

The bathroom will have a beautiful frame made of glass mosaic tiles. It is better to take the material on a paper basis. Such tiles are more difficult to work with than their analogues, which have a mesh base, but they are cheaper. In addition, the mesh will be visible through the transparent decorative layer.

Work algorithm:

First, prepare the base from an MDF board. Draw the contours of the mirror and frame. Cut tile fragments.
The adhesive backing is glued according to the markings. Cut pieces of tiles are glued onto it.
Three wooden strips are selected, identical in thickness to the tiles. The blanks are glued at the same distance from each other onto an MDF board in the center of the resulting mirror glass window. A strip of special glue for mirrors is applied along the inner edge of the tile frame. The thickness of the adhesive layer is small so that it does not spread. A mirror is glued to the frame. The structure is left to harden for at least a day.
The next day, the product is given a vertical position. A loop is attached to the MDF board. The structure is hung on the wall.

DIY mirror frame design

You can frame anything you can get your hands on. Popsicle sticks, plastic spoons, ropes, and other small things are used. When choosing a material, it is important to think about it so that it does not turn out to be bad taste.

In a bright room you can hang a mirror decorated in French style

When designing, pay attention to the following nuances:

The color is selected so that the frame harmoniously combines with the interior design palette of the room.
The width of the framing elements should be directly proportional to the size of the mirror. The larger it is, the more beautiful the wide slats look.
The design style of the frame and the room must match. Let it be classic, modern or something else, but united.
It is better to use the same materials for one frame. The combination does not always give good results.

You need to experiment with design and look for a creative approach. The result will be positive when the color and type of frame matches the style of the interior of the room.

Other original frames

The scope for choosing material is so great that everything that the owners see every day is used. It is not entirely correct to call these unusual products the beautiful word “baguette”, but they get the job done.

Spoons, forks and knives

This frame deserves the title of the largest original. However, it will find its fans, since the decorative element can decorate not only the kitchen, but also the corridor and bathroom. This work is not at all difficult, but it guarantees the instant loss of a large number of cutlery.

First, glue a mirror to the selected plate, and a circle of cardboard on the back side. After the workpiece has dried, spoons, forks and/or knives are glued to it, alternating the utensils at your own discretion. But these decorative elements should not oxidize, darken or fade.

Ropes, braids of ropes

This is another option that requires a reliable base, since the mirrors in this case are usually quite large. This type of design looks best on round or oval objects, but several pieces of thick rope can decorate even a rectangular product.

The mirror is attached to a base cut with an allowance. A rope or braids tied from twine or rope are glued around it in rows. The product is often decorated with marine paraphernalia - pebbles, shells, anchors or steering wheels.

Popsicle sticks turned into frames

Baguettes made for round mirrors look especially interesting. They are also mounted on a cardboard base, but done in rows. The shape of these frames can be the most unusual. Finished products are coated with acrylic paint or varnish. Sticks laid out in the shape of a sun with rays are decorated with golden paint and bugles.

A baguette for a mirror can be made from almost any available material, so new ideas are constantly being born in the minds of creative authors. Anyone can come up with their own version, but first you need to awaken your dormant imagination. This video can give the necessary impetus for creativity: