DIY Wood Sunburst Mirror

DIY wood sunburst mirror made from cedar planks. DIY farmhouse wall decor and decorating ideas


As I mentioned last week, I've been itchin' to change up my front room. It was a hard decision to make, but after much thought, I decided to do it. I'll give you the short end of a long story...well, not really. Anyway, here's the deal. My house use to have the main accent color as black...black frames, black tables, etc. So, all of our family pictures were always black and white with black frames.
When I started redecorating, I kept finding that I was leaning more and more towards natural earthy colors, and what goes best with natural earthy colors? Brown. Black does too...but for what I was going for, brown was what I wanted.

Now, black and brown can co-exist. But when I wanted to put one of our old pictures up...it just never looked right. So, as all my rooms slowly transformed to browns, my front room was a haven for all of those pictures because it was now the only room in the house with black accents. And the only real reason for that was because of the pictures. So, I found myself decorating around the pictures. And the only reason for that was I felt that I had to have those pictures somewhere, because I really don't have any other pictures of us in our house and the hubs kept giving me crap about it. Anyway. Long story....so, I never really liked the room because I was decorating it for the wrong purpose.

When I first started to venture into redecorating the space, I still wanted to keep the grounding color black, but I found this totally awesome fabric that I had to have....and it of course, naturally had brown in it. And so the crazy redecorating process ensued.First up was to take off all the pictures on the wall and put up something in its place. I didn't want to spend much money....and it had to make a statement.
Sunburst Mirror -Ballard Designs Knock off made from Cedar planks only for $11!
....aka...be huge :) and the fabric was calling for something a little more vintage looking...and brown, of course. So, I remembered seeing this beauty over at Ballard Designs:
and thought that I could totally make that. Ha!....and so the insanity began. Here is a peek into my mind: 
I cut up a Bed Bath and Beyond catalogue into rectangles, then from there cut them into triangles and tried to configure someway to make my mirror look like Ballards. 
These are just two of the many many ways I tried....I think I had decided to pursue the bottom design.

So, first off. I took my cedar planks and drew up my cut lines. I measured the length at 22"then found the middle on one of the short sides, and drew a line from the corner of the other to the middle mark. Did this on the other corner also.
I did this ten times, using 5 cedar planks. I then used my miter saw to cut the separate pieces.
And used my jigsaw to cut the triangle pieces. I warn you...this did take some time :) 10 large triangles and 20 small triangles later::::

I laid them out on the grass to the same design as the magazine cutouts....and it looked completely awful. So, awful that I thought, "jeez, what a waste of time. Now I have all these pieces for no good reason." lol "I guess they'll make good firewood."

I almost gave up...especially when I realized that in order to do that design, I would need twice as many cuts as I had....Then I thought about maybe putting some space in between them, so I wouldn't have to do any more cuts or go to the store again to get more wood. Yes...laziness.

But, thanks to that laziness...that's when the final design came to be :) So, first, I took the smaller triangles, and put them straight side against the largest triangle. Measured them 4" down from the top of the big triangle, and cut of the bottoms.
Then, I used some wood glue to secure them together:
Next I stained them a dark chestnut.
Sunburst Mirror -Ballard Designs Knock off made from Cedar planks only for $11!
Then I cut a circle out of plywood using my jigsaw and used a nail gun to secure all the pieces together to the circle. I did this on the cement in the garage for a level surface, measuring the empty space between them with my level. It ended up being a little more than the width of the level. Not exact...but you can't tell, can you? Exactly :)
Sunburst Mirror -Ballard Designs Knock off made from Cedar planks only for $11!
Then I used some poly to seal it up.It gave it a nice shine too :) The bottom right three are with poly, and the rest aren't. What a difference it makes! 
Sunburst Mirror -Ballard Designs Knock off made from Cedar planks only for $11!
Once everything was dried, I bought a 12" circular mirror and secured it to the top of the sunburst with Gorilla Glue. Love that stuff! :)
Sunburst Mirror -Ballard Designs Knock off made from Cedar planks only for $11!
I waited overnight for this to dry in place, and then added some felt to the back of the mirror on the plywood (don't mind the hack job).

And then added a picture hanger to the back. I used a bit larger nails than the ones it came with, just to make sure it would stay in there, cuz baby....this thing is heavy!
Got it up on the wall and was relieved :) Finally, after two years...just this amount of change made me actually love this room, and want to be in it :)
Of course, the new pillow covers helped a bit too.
Sunburst Mirror -Ballard Designs Knock off made from Cedar planks only for $11!
This is about 50" in circumference.I know :) huge!!!
Exactly what I was going for! 
Sunburst Mirror -Ballard Designs Knock off made from Cedar planks only for $11!
Next up for a change? The curtains! I'm not sure what I'm going to do with them...but I'm excited!
Luckily, for now...they still go with the pillows, so it won't drive me too crazy :)
Sunburst Mirror -Ballard Designs Knock off made from Cedar planks only for $11!
Total cost of this sunburst mirror?
Cedar planks: $8.15
Mirror: $3
Everything else I had on hand.
Total: $11.15.
Umm...yes, I think I would rather have this than the $349 Ballard mirror :)

29 comments

  1. I love it. What a great piece and so substantial. You did a wonderful job. Gorgeous. Hugs, Marty

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  2. That is gorgeous! I think it is far better than the Ballard mirror!

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  3. This is beautiful!!! I am now trying to decide where I could put one in my house! Great job!!!

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  4. This looks so good. I'm inspired to try something similar. Thanks for sharing.

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  5. So beautiful! It definetly takes center stage in your front room. It's so much fun taking inspiration from big buck designs and making them for so ridiculously cheap! good job it truly looks amazing...

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  6. Wow! You did such an amazing job! Love it to pieces :)

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  7. SPECTACULAR! Definitely worth the time you put in! :) I love it!

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  8. Really cute mirror!! I love the different, graphic shape.

    I shared it on my TT&J facebook page :)

    xoxo
    Jen

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  9. What a beautiful thing you've created! I've always loved "making something out of nothing", and this is really something! Great job, it's inspired me to try something like it myself!

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  10. That turned out awesome. I love the color and the shape. I love seeing all the different starburst mirrors everyone makes. Very clever.

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  11. Absolutely beautiful! Im speechless (well sort of)...what a creative idea to actually do a template before doing the work. And you cant beat the price. By the way I LOVE the curtains:) Cant wait to see what else you have planned...happy decorating!

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  12. Love this...maybe I should try similar

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  13. I actually think I like it better than the Ballard Design version! Well done, it is really beautiful! Take care, Laura

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  14. Love this! Very cleverly done and your perseverance has paid off. Don't know if I'm up to this but oh my, what an inspiration.

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  15. Love, love, love this! If I even had one place in my house to put another starburst I would totally make this!!!

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  16. Your mirror is awesome. I recently featured http://decoratingcents.blogspot.com/2011/11/trends-sunburst-mirrors.html. Please stop by and grab a button.

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  17. Love this project and will attempt it myself someday. I would love to feature this on my blog that I just started www.alterinteriors.blogspot.com I have also added your site to my blog as well.

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  18. Love this! And it's super cheap to make which I love most ;)
    Christina
    http://kaleidoscope-living.blogspot.com/

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  19. I don't know how to pos a pic, but I copy yours, doubled it and made two layers to get more of the Ballard look. So far it's only in Photoshop, but it looks great. I spec'd this for a clients project and now it's no longer available at Ballard, so wish me luck!!

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  20. Very nicely done. I love the size, scope and especially the thrifty part. Good tutorial too. Thanks

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  21. WOW!!!
    I am in the market for a BIG wooden sunburst mirror, but sickened by the price tags.
    You have inspired me to try and do it myself:)
    Thanks for posting.

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  22. oOooo! Great. Just perf. I've been looking for some ideas as I have a bunch of old clock faces and convex lab glass I've been dying to silver.. yeah, I have a problem. ;-)

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  23. I like it better than the original!!

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  24. omg! This is perfect. I've seen one similar to this at the store, but super pricey. Thank you so much for sharing. I'll definitely be attempting this project.

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  25. A sunburst mirror is on my wish list since forever! The price tag is just too high. I will definitely try this one! Thanks!

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  26. Now that is jus a cool mirror plain and simple.

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  27. Excellent, excellent, and excellent job

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happy DIYing! Alicia