Moving Madness: Broken Mirror ReImagined
Everyone who knows me, knows that I am Obsessed with Zgallerie Home Decor. Most of my furniture has come from there since I discovered it about 8 years ago. One of my favorite pieces is a mirrored coffee table that I received as a gift a few Christmases back. It’s such a statement piece, I just love it so much…
While moving this past month, the movers actually broke the table – with a giant crack straight down the middle of the table. Now, we have moved at least 3 or 4 times over the years since I got the table. Yet my movers had the audacity and nerve to say the table was broken before they moved it…clearly they were taking no responsibility for the repairs.
So here I was…left with my favorite table, and no accountability for the repair. Now left with the question… “What do I do with my broken table?”
Well, when you have a piece of furniture that you love so much – to be honest I only buy furniture and decor that Ijust cannot live without – throwing it away is just not an option.
The wood portion of the table is perfectly in tact, as are the mirrored blocks around the outer rim of the table. The issue was only the top where the crack was. Here is what I did to reinvent my favorite table.
First, I had to break off all of the glass from the table, since the crack went right down the center. This was not an easy task, and definitely NOT for the faint of heart ! It took about 3 hours of hammering and peeling the glass off. There must be an easier way to remove the glass…not to mention safer. I definitely suggest wearing long pants so the small pieces of glass do not cut your legs. And thick gloves are a good idea as well.
I was finally able to get the glass off, as much as possible…Now I was ready to lay the glass/mirrored pieces that I broke off of the top. Do not make the mistake that I did on my first attempt…Make sure you GLUE down the design before putting on the grout.
And be sure to purchase the correct grout. I purchased one at Home Depot and it did notturn out well.
So as you can see on the image here, I had to scrape it off and start again. I ended up with a simple black smooth grout from Michael’s craft store.
Look for the best pieces of glass…depending on what look you want to achieve. I really wanted larger pieces, and if you look really closely, you can see that I put my favorite word in, using the bigger pieces that were broken off.
With the larger pieces, I spelled out “Posh”, and then filled in the smaller sizes around it so the word subtly stands out.
I waited a few days for the pieces I glued down to dry really well. I didn’t want them to move around while I put the grout on. That happened on my first attempt, because I tried to rush through the process. Sometimes I get too excited, I want to see the end result. Don’t be like me, lol! Take your time…
Finally! I was ready to add the grout. I used Modern Options Mosaic Grout in black from Michaels, for $20. I should’ve purchased 2 bottles. I have to go back for one more round. But here is the end result…
It is a really tedious process of spreading the grout, letting it settle some, and going back over it dozens of times…you have to let it dry just enough so it won’t keep spreading. But not so much that the grout hardens over the glass. I still have one layer of grout to add once I get another bottle…and a few more hours of free time, lol. But so far, I am very happy that I didn’t trash such a strong table with so much beauty left to offer us!
