when we moved into our current house 2 years ago, i was so excited about the judge's paneling on the family room walls. that is to say until i started to decorate the room. they are much harder to work around than you might think. the room was really dark and the natural wood paneling was even darker. step 1 was a coat of glidden antique white paint (my go to color for everything!). step 2, paint the insets. the top is a light tan as you can see through the mirror and the bottom, which you can't see is a medium tan. step 3 was to create this frame. above the fireplace was an inset the exact width of the mantel. i had a piece of mirror cut to the width of the panel, minus 4 inches on all sides. then i bought some trim pieces from the hardware store and nailed them to the wall. this "trim frame" is what holds the mirror in place.
then on to the fun part. i took a hot glue gun and free handed a rough leaf/branch motif onto the middle part. then i painted the entire faux frame a dark red, then gold leafed it all. as one final touch, i took some leftover wood stain and rubbed it into all the crevices to dial back the shine of the gold lead.
the result looks like it is a custom made frame hung into place. i get asked a lot how i came up with this idea. and the truth is i went through about 10 different layers of trying things out. nothing is right from the start, you just have to work with something until you get what you like.i especially love how the wall frame matches a piece of artwork my brother painted for me as a college graduation present. this was a total coincidence!
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