How to make a Butterfly Mirror | Low Cost DIY Home Décor
Neiman Marcus sells a $550 butterfly mirror almost exactly like the one I made for $30. Keep reading to see step by step on how I made my $30 version. I also did a video showing you the easy steps. Check it out below and if you like it, please consider subscribing to my YouTube channel, so you will see my other fun DIYs as I post them!
Here is the mirror I found at Neiman Marcus, which I thought was so beautiful. I tend to use gold as accents in my home, but you could recreate this in any color that matches your decor. This is a design from Jamie Young and goes for $550. I love this, but personally didn’t want to spend that much on a mirror. I love butterflies and if you saw my “Jewelry Must Haves” video, you may remember one of my most sentimental pieces of jewelry is a gold butterfly necklace from my parents.
The Jamie Young piece is solid brass, which I am sure contributes to the high cost and the workmanship makes it a beautiful piece of art worthy of the $550 price tag. But to make my own version for only $30, I had to be resourceful with materials, so here are the supplies I picked up to make my very own butterfly mirror. I will link these items, so you can pick everything up online, if you want to make your very own butterfly mirror for $30.
// supplies
// Step 1
The first step is to spray paint those butterflies. The package of butterflies came with various sizes, so I picked out the ones that were smaller so I could use more around the perimeter of the mirror and saved the big ones for a possible future project. I opened up their wings and I wanted to the spray painting outside, so I did have to tack them down so they wouldn’t fly away while they were drying. They came with some glue dots to make that task easier and these glue dots are surprisingly strong.
I only needed to worry about painting the fronts since this will be on a wall, but I did try to angle some of the paint underneath the wings too. It is usually humid in Texas, so there was some moisture in the air, but they still came out well. The nozzle kept leaking onto my finger, so I would recommend wearing rubber gloves and doing this on a dry day.
// step 2
Step two is to add a hook on the back of the mirror so you can hang this butterfly mirror on your wall. The nice thing is that since these butterflies are so light the overall weight of the mirror is low so you don’t need any heavy duty hanging hooks like you sometimes do with large mirrors. I just used some Gorilla Glue and a picture frame hook and it was good to go with one nail in the wall.
// Step 3
Next, we need to glue the butterflies to the mirror. I used those really strong glue dots that came with the butterflies and just created a pattern of butterflies how I thought they looked best and tried to give it that 3 dimensional effect. It doesn’t have to be perfect, just go around until you feel the density of the butterflies is substantial. And even though those glue dots are super strong, they can be adjusted if you want to rearrange the set up.
// step 4
Since there is no dry time with those glue dots we can move right into step 4 which is to give that mirror a good clean to get off the smudges. Yes, this deserves its own step, especially for those of us with a little OCD when it comes to cleaning!
// The final result
Now this mirror is ready to hang. Ok, lets compare my $30 version to the $550 one. What do you guys think of my version? I am really happy with how it came out. If you end up making your own version of this mirror, make sure to tag me on Instagram @artsycupcake1. I would love to see how yours comes out!
If you enjoyed this DIY tutorial, please leave a comment below, so we can get to know each other. I’m trying to build a positive community here on Artsy Cupcake, so I would love to hear from you in the comments section below. Thank you so much for reading and I hope you have a very happy day.
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