Frosting Mirrored Closet Doors: 2nd Attempt = SUCCESS!!!!

What I have learned from this experience is to never give up and that saving money takes time.  The total cost of this project was approximately $35 ($6.99 for the frosted glass spray paint, ~$6 for the adhesive shelf liner and $20 for the circle cutter which can be used for many other projects) but the hours we put in was the kicker!!  Not counting the first attempt, Mr. Loonie and I spent close to 10 hours, thank god for his help or I would still be on the floor cutting circles.  In the end, the doors turned out so adorable and exactly what I was envisioning.  Mr. Loonie and I had some bonding time too during the endless circle cutting when we did get out a word; we are both the silent type when working so conversation always lacks during projects.  Trust me though, I make up for it during his favorite show/video game or while he is trying to have a peaceful shower/bathroom break, etc., etc. ;)

So the method...........after many pinterest searches I found this amazing tutorial on the blog "My 3 Monsters".  I pretty much did exactly what she said, we were just using a different stencil technique.

Warning: Longest post ever!

STEP 1: Remove closet doors.  This is not as easy as it looks, after some web researching the recommended way is to remove the tracks from the floor.  Yah right....there was a screw right smack in the middle of the track between the two doors which couldn't be accessed.  Mr.Loonie decided it was time to get aggressive and bend the top track for the wheels to slide out and voila, they were out.  He just bent the track back when it was time for the doors to be replaced.

STEP 2:  Apply adhesive shelf liner to the closet mirrors and smooth down the best you can.  Don't worry about the air bubbles, once the stencil is cut, the air bubbles can be pushed out to a circle hole which is much easier than trying to push them out to the door edges.  (I wish I would have thought of this earlier). 

STEP 3: This would be the time to spray the closet frame if needed as the mirrors are covered but my frames were white so this was not necessary.

STEP 4: Cut out your desired stencil.  In my case, it was a random circle pattern.  I found the most amazing tool from Martha Stewart at Wal-Mart. This circle cutter is what ol' Martha would call " A good thing", best $20 I eva spent!  The cutter allowed me to choose circle sizes between 1" and 5 7/8" at 1/16" increments, therefore 94 choices! The only snag was that we couldn't get close enough to the mirror's edges as I would have liked due to the frame and the width of the circle tool.  We used random objects from around the house and traced with an x-acto knife to fill in the edges.

  

STEP 5: Take the stenciled doors outside to spray with the frosted glass paint. The can instructed to spray in >10°C and man, did we get lucky with a warm sunny winter day with temperatures hovering around 10°C in the sun. Make sure to cover up the surrounding area (we didn't want our garage doors frosted!) and spray according to can directions.  This stuff is toxic! To avoid any baby trauma, Mr. Loonie did the spraying which consisted of three quick coats.

BEFORE SPRAYING: (notice the reflection)

AFTER SPRAYING: (notice there is no reflection!)

  

STEP 6: After 10-15 minutes of drying (it dries very quickly) bring the doors back inside and peel away the remaining contact paper....very exciting!!  This took some time as we had to remove small slivers of the adhesive paper from where I did two passes per circle with the cutter. Bits of glue that stayed on the mirror after peeling also had to be cleaned with some windex. Thank you Auntie Jingle for the help!

STEP 7: Put the closet back together and admire your work!! It was worth it, phew!

Head over to Penny's Nursery Reveal post to view how the closet doors look in the finished room!