Ballard Inspired Sunburst Mirror

This Bone Sunburst Mirror from Ballard Designs was total love at first sight,

but the $269 price tag was not.

There had to be a way to replicate the look without the cost.

I have to tell you this project was a royal pain! Chalk it up to a lesson in perseverance. But the results are worth it!

I’ll show you how I attempted to copy it and feel free to give it a go, but it took A LOT of time and patience, both of which I don’t have.

Replicating bone is not easy. This area gets very humid so I knew cardstock or poster board wouldn’t work. I chose transparencies.

The rough side of each transparency was sprayed first with Rust-oleum’s multi-colored textured paint in a sand color,

then with Heirloom White and allowed to dry.

Each sheet was cut lengthwise into 4 equal strips. The strips were then cut into 4 separate sizes for the “bone” layers.

   

The 3 shorter strips were each folded lengthwise and a slight curve was cut at one end.

 

The longest strips were also folded in half and a sharper cut was made to form a point. Then ALL pieces were folded using a paper airplane technique. This was repeated, oh I’d say, about 152 times. That’s A LOT of folding. See where the perseverance enters the pic?

  

Then all the little “airplanes” were stacked and hot glued at their base, creating a 4 layered “airplane” or strip.

I wasn’t pleased with the appearance of the paint, since my kids said it just looked like sandpaper. (thank you children)

It needed more iridescence. I then painted 1/2 of all the stacked and glued strips with the pearl acrylic paint.

Alternating and overlapping a pearlized strip with a plain strip, a circle was formed and a dot of glue somewhat secured it in place.

   

Double sided sticky tape was applied around the backside of a 14 inch mirror and pressed onto the sunburst.

But that only holds it enough for you to flip the mirror over (enter MORE perseverance).

So I scoured the garage for some crazy sticky tape and found this metal tape that I think HVAC guys use. It’s STRONG!!

The entire back edges were covered with the tape and I even taped on some hanging wire.

For a small amount of money and a ton of elbow grease, I think I was able to create something close to the original.

Was it worth all the time and energy?

Yes, but I would still take the real Ballard’s Bone Sunburst Mirror any day of the week, if anyone would like to purchase it for me!

 

Kim

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