DIY Mirror Mosaic Wall Hangings
I originally made this DIY project for a YouTube video, but I figured, why not dedicate a blog post for it, too. Excuse the grainy photos that were grabbed from the video.
In my last apartment, I had a big wall in my kitchen that I needed to fill, and I wanted to reflect the light that came in from the windows on that side of the apartment. I had seen some beautiful huge mosaic tiled mirrors at Pier 1 or somewhere that I definitely could not afford on my apartment budget, so I decided to recreate something similar myself. I lovedddd these pieces and they hung in that kitchen the whole time I lived there, and then hung in my bedroom for a couple years at my next place. Keep reading for the tutorial!
You Will Need:
Framed Canvas (I used a pair of 16” x 40” canvases)
Mirror (I used a pair of 13” x 49” door mirrors that were super cheap at Walmart. You could also look at a thrift store or repurpose a broken mirror. Just be sure that your mirror is larger than the area you’re covering.)
Towel
Hammer
Safety Glasses
Work Gloves
Empty plastic bin or container
Mosaic Adhesive
Mosaic Grout (You may need rubber gloves and a sponge for this step, but check the directions on your package)
Optional: Mosaic Glass Gems
Instructions:
Start by wrapping your mirror in the towel and then carefully tapping on the towel-wrapped mirror with the hammer to break it into mosaic tiles. If you’re using large canvases like I did, you’ll want all of the pieces to be smaller than 4 inches at the largest part, or smaller if you’re using a smaller canvas. Keep re-wrapping and tapping until all of the broken pieces are small enough. I like to have a variety of sizes of pieces to work with to help everything fit together. I used a super cheap mirror, so I had to peel the paper backing off of mine before I could break the mirror up. Gather all your pieces into a plastic bin, discarding any pieces that are too small to use.
SAFETY ALERT: I recommend wearing eye-protection and work gloves during this step to avoid injury. I wasn’t wearing them in the video because I like to live on the edge (read: I’m lazy). Broken glass has a lot of sharp edges. Don’t be lazy! Be safe!
Glue a glass gem to the top of each canvas to anchor your design and start laying out pieces of mirror around the gem. If you decide to leave the glass gem out, choose a starting point either at the top or corner of your canvas.
Lay out your mirror pieces like a puzzle so that everything fits together. Try to leave a consistent amount of space between each piece. I tried to leave between 1/8” to 1/4” of space. When you like how your pieces are laid out, glue them to your canvas and let everything dry overnight.
When the glue has set, you can add the grout between your mirror pieces. Mix up your grout following the directions on the package. Fill every tiny space between every piece with grout, and then wipe away the excess. This part can get really messy! Let the grout set up overnight (or however long it says on the package) and then your mirror mosaic piece is complete!
This project can be really time consuming and a little bit tedious, but the end result is more than worth the work. I created these two large pieces for under $40 and because of the nature of the medium, they can fit just about anywhere in your home.
Leave a comment and let me know if you liked this DIY project and want to see more like it. If you try this project, please tag me on social media or send me an email! I would love to see how yours turns out and where you decide to put it!
And if you prefer to watch, here’s my video tutorial on Youtube:
