A Sunburst Mirror

The finished project

So, I've been spending a lot of time on Pinterest, and it's true that people post a lot of pictures of lovely rooms and I noticed that a great number of those have a "sunburst" mirror featured somewhere. I have been a fan of sunburst mirrors for a while now, and as a matter of fact, I layered two bought ones and hang them above my bed:

One of the side effects of "Pinteresting" is that you get the urge to get crafty, and this afternoon, I decided I needed another sunburst mirror. Had to have it.
So I gathered things I had around the house. Really, I did not spend a dime. 
Here's my supply list:


. Remnants of a bamboo roller shade that I had to shorten (I knew those long bamboo sticks would come in handy one day). Here's the exact blind I'm talking about, also in my bedroom:

. A round mirror, about 8" in diameter, it originally cost $ 3 at the dollar store, I think this type of mirror is intended for a table centerpiece, for candles, for example.
. Small round mirror circles, also from the dollar store. I just had a bunch of these leftover from another project.
. Hot glue gun, of course.
. Silver spray paint, from hubby's garage.


. Ok so first I cut the bamboo pieces to size. I used some 13" pieces (those were the flat bamboo pieces), 11" and 9". 

I was thinking about the easiest way to arrange the pieces, and how I would be able to space the different pieces at about the same distance from one another, and what I came up with was to draw a circle about 1" smaller than the mirror and cut it out. So from there, I folded the circle in half, in half again, and continued to fold until I had as many folds on the paper as I thought would make up the starburst pattern:

This made it easy for me to lay out the longest pieces (I centered the paper on the mirror, and attached it with a piece of tape so it wouldn't budge while I worked):

From there, I finished hot-glueing the first layer, and moved on the the shorter pieces, I used two 11" and one 9" in between the longer pieces, but of course you could arrange the pieces however you liked, there are no real rules.

After a lot of gluing and a few scorched fingers, it was time to decide if it should be left au naturel (the blinds were a kind of white wash, but the sunburst mirror didn't seem finished as it was somehow) or if I had to call on my husband's excellent skills with a can of spray paint.  In the end, the silver paint won, and I actually liked how shiny and finished it looked (notice that the mirror part was still covered with the template, so as not to get the mirror all painted - but you knew that).

I think this mirror would would have been just as successful and maybe even a little slicker if the bamboo sticks had been glued to the underside of the mirror. Oh well, next time. But to finish this  project off, I added a layer of small round mirrors all around the raw edges, where all the glue was unsightly:

Lastly, I used a trick I learned on Pinterest to attach a hanging hook to the back of the mirror: a pop tab, from a pop can, hot glued (here is hoping that it holds! Maybe I should have used Gorilla Glue!):

Tah Dah! I thought I would put it above the couch in the living room, but I didn't think it belonged there after all. So I had this very empty wall on the hallway by the kitchen, I think it looks fab.