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maju785

Wallpaper on mirror closet

maju785
11 years ago

I have bifold mirror closet doors! Well who doesnt. in my quest to bring my house to present century, I have been trying to update them. The door is in my main hallway near the entrance. The problem is I have six panel oak doors and there is one abt 1 feet from it ( the door to basement) . the opposite side is a wall enclosing to framed opening to formal living room. I could have replaced the closet door with oak door ( I have all solid oak trim/ doors and sorry cant paint them white) the wall color of foyer is revere pewter a light gray. I have been coming up with some ideas :

1. Wallpaper with a gray based wall paper, any suggestions on that?
2. Contact paper the miror.
3. Paint with a glass paint used for stained glass ( will be time consuming and not sure how it will look).
4. the spray to frost ( its very temporary and comes off with cleaner)

I do not want to take doors down as I am not sure if I can put it back up.
Even the door handles are made of mirrors not sure what to do with them.
The wall in front of closet has a large print of Florence framed in antique greyish frame. please help

Comments (16)

  • Annie Deighnaugh
    11 years ago

    I guess it depends on the look you are going for, but you can apply a temporary window film to get a different look....they come in frosted or etched or rice paper or stained glass....there's a whole slew of styles and patterns to choose from, and it's inexpensive and easy to remove if you don't like it.

    Here is a link that might be useful: Decorative films

  • graywings123
    11 years ago

    Personally, I like mirrored doors in the right places. Maybe changing the door handles is all you need to do. Could you post a photo of the area? As for your ideas:

    1. Wallpaper with a gray based wall paper, any suggestions on that?
    - Maybe, if it matches the wall color well.
    2. Contact paper the mirror.
    - No. You need a perfect application, and contact paper is too difficult to work with (in my experience).
    3. Paint with a glass paint used for stained glass (will be time consuming and not sure how it will look).
    - I suspect - but am not certain - that you could use regular acrylic house paint.
    4. the spray to frost ( its very temporary and comes off with cleaner)
    - This would be a good way to test if you like the idea.

    It should be easy to remove the door handles and replace them. Look on the back side for screws.

  • writersblock (9b/10a)
    11 years ago

    Paint with a glass paint used for stained glass (will be time consuming and not sure how it will look).
    - I suspect - but am not certain - that you could use regular acrylic house paint.

    I won't say this is impossible, but I've seen it done several times and it's always looked horrific, so I would say it must be very, very difficult to do acceptably. Personally I think it would look worse than the glass.

    I also have mirrored closet doors and it seems to me the only solutions are 1: Go to a good millwork company have custom non-glass doors made (you won't find stock floor to ceiling replacements if that's what you have), or 2. Learn to embrace the glass. I opted for 2.

  • Tmnca
    11 years ago

    We covered our modern mirror slider closet doors in our previous condo with rice paper, then put flat wood strips on with double sided tape to create a Shoji screen look. We used that bedroom as an office and hated having our reflections constantly in the corner of an eye. When we sold the condo we just peeled off the paper.

    Here is a link that might be useful: Example of how to

  • writersblock (9b/10a)
    11 years ago

    Very clever, tinan. How did you adhere the paper itself? Double sided tape on the frame area?

    Not sure how to make that work for bifolds, but it would do very well for the wall of sliding mirror doors I have in one room.

    EDIT But I will say that the ones in the page you linked look a little odd next to the traditional room entry door.

    This post was edited by writersblock on Thu, Nov 29, 12 at 14:13

  • writersblock (9b/10a)
    11 years ago

    Tinan's link got me thinking and I also found this:

    Incidentally, she did this by cutting out the arabesques in a contact paper design, so the blog page also gives an idea of what wallpaper would look like if you look at the first steps in doing this.

    Here is a link that might be useful: frosted arabesques

  • erinsean
    11 years ago

    Could you put a thin peice of beadboard, plywood or the wood used for the bottom of drawers over the mirrors? Then you could paint it and it would look like the rest of your walls. May not be enough room. How about white poster board, painted.

    If the mirrored doors are in the right place, they would look nice left alone.

  • writersblock (9b/10a)
    11 years ago

    Yes, apartment therapy did a post about updating mirrored sliders a while ago, and the majority of the responses were in favor of just leaving them alone, except for a few folks who said you must hang something over them for fung shui reasons.

  • Tmnca
    11 years ago

    THe rice paper I ordered came with the adhesive tape actually! Our place was more modern so it looked good I think - I just don't have any pictures so I linked one that ended up looking similar...

    oh I found the link where I bought the paper

    Here is a link that might be useful: Shoji paper

  • Annie Deighnaugh
    11 years ago

    I would think the window film would be easiest ... certainly a lot easier than cutting out contact paper...and the film does come as rice paper if you want that as an option....

  • desertsteph
    11 years ago

    DIY 'I Want That' show just had on some of the window/mirror film this past week. They've also had on beadboard looking wall covering.

    you could search on their website

  • writersblock (9b/10a)
    11 years ago

    Thanks for the extra details, tinan.

  • maju785
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    thanks for these wonderful ideas. I will try to see which one works best in my situation. I love soji screen but not sure if it will go with my traditional house. I tried contact paper and was total failure already. I looked at the back of glass door handle, did not see how its attached seems like its glued on. Anyways I hope one of these options work.

  • Jodi_SoCal
    11 years ago

    This is what the Gila brand Rice Paper film looks like on clear glass. Not sure if it would look any different on mirron. We bought the film at Lowes I think. Sorry I don't have a close-up photo.

    Jodi-

  • minnie omalley
    8 years ago

    You can wallpaper over mirror if you do a coat of primer first.