DIY Rope Mirror

I've needed a mirror for my front entry for along time.  Before I left the house, instead of just glancing in a mirror, I had to trek into the bathroom to make sure everything was in place!  Once I removed and replaced the mirror in my bathroom, I knew it was the perfect size to use above my half table in my entry/living room. It didn't have a frame though, so I made it my mission to source out some ideas.

I went through many phases including:

A sequin sunburst mirror

Source: Meijo's Joy

A mirrored mirror

Source: Team Southards

Etching a mirror

Source: A Little Tipsy

Framing it with molding and corner pieces

Source: Southern Hospitality

Adding glass beads

Source: Crafty Nest

Tiling the mirror

Source: Centsational Girl

Until finally I found this:

Source: Ruby Lane

But at $895 I knew I could easily DIY this for MUCH cheaper!

Turns out it's way harder to get thick, manila rope than I thought.  After 2 months of searching, and trips to 6 different hardware/home improvement stores, I finally found some in stock at Lowe's online.  They also had free shipping, so for $30 I had myself some rope delivered straight to my door!

Materials:
Mirror
Glue Gun
Rope - I used 3/4 inch twisted manila rope
Duct Tape/Electrical Tape

Here was my mirror before and my materials all gathered together!

I started by duct taping the end of the rope in the bottom center of the mirror (I marked the center with a grease pencil that could be easily erased afterwards).  I didn't glue it as I needed it to be loose at the end.  

Super Duper Helpful Tip:  I started this project by using Household Goop - a strong glue but had a very slow drying time.  I was having to hold the rope in place with heavy books, and even then, the rope was still sliding all over the place!  (This caused me to have a mild hissy fit insisting this project was a dumb idea and would never work...)  An immediate decision was made to go to the hardware store and purchase a glue gun (Shocker I know, a crafter like me does not own her own glue gun...well I do now!)  A glue gun is necessary as you need the quick drying time of the glue.  Hissy fit averted.

When I made it all the way around the mirror, I cut the rope and taped it with electrical tape.  It was smaller and therefore easier to work with than the duct tape and it stopped the rope from unraveling perfectly!  Then it was a matter of going around the mirror two more times and gluing as I went.

I made sure not to glue any of the ends down and just secured them with duct tape.  I needed them to be loose in order to wrap them at the end.

Once I'd gone around three times with the rope, I joined all of the ends with duct tape to make one big duct taped section (I didn't get a good photo, but I also taped up the open gap you can see in the photo below so none of the ends showed.)  I had some rope left over, so I unraveled some skinny strings and used them to wrap and hide the tape.  This ensures that the decoration at the top is the same colour and texture as the rest of the frame.  I glued one end of the skinny piece behind the duct tape.  Since the frame ends were not glued down, I was able to wrap the string around and behind the section.

Here is the completed wrapped area.  Once wrapped, I shoved the glue gun under it and squirted some blobs to secure it.

Then it was just a matter of hanging the mirror.  I did do some admiring of all the money I saved!  All it took was a glue gun and some rope!

Linked: East Coast Creative #cwts2014