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alison_col

Making an outdoor mirror reflective?

alison
16 years ago

A couple of years ago I found a beautiful old mirror with thick glass, bevelled edges -- and flaking silver. It wasn't something I wanted to put inside the house, but it looked lovely on a back fence in the yard, reflecting the light and looking like a window into a secret garden.

Over the years, more and more of the silver flaked off, and there really isn't much left. Over the weekend, as an experiemtn, I painted some vines and flowers on the back of the glass. I planned to spray paint the back silver or chrome, then add a coat of varnish and put it back in the yard.

But when I tried the chrome spray paint on a test piece of glass, it was just a flat grey, no sparkle or reflection at all. I didn't buy a can of silvr spray paint, but I'm not expecting that will be any different.

I'm thinking I might get some silver or aluminum leaf. I don't expect a real mirror finish (altho' that would be nice!) but I do want something that will catch an reflect the light.

Has anyone used the leafing for an outdoor project? Anything special I should know? Or is there something else I should use that could give me a reflective surface behind the paint?

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