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Pottery Barn “Eagan Mirror” DIY Project

February 13, 201115 Comments
Hey there! 

We are back to teach ya’ll how to make your own Pottery Barn “Eagan Mirror” that I mentioned as one of my favorite things back in this post.

So, my favorite home decorating store of all time is Pottery Barn. Although we can’t afford anything in the place, it remains my constant source of inspiration. My strategy is to look through Pottery Barn catalogs, see what their products look like, how they arrange their furniture, what paint colors they use, how they incorporate florals, pillows, and so on. Then, I set out to try to find the most realistic and cheap knock-off that I can find or make myself. So when I saw that the Lettered Cottage made their own Pottery Barn knock-off mirror, I couldn’t resist trying it myself.

First, we headed to Lowe’s to gather our supplies:

  • 15 8×8 mirrors from Hobby Lobby (located in the candle section – wait for a sale on these!)
  • 2 2×4 pieces of particle board (the mirror will measure 44.5 x 27 inches) 
  • 4 brackets to hold two pieces of particle board together 
  • 4 8 ft. sections of 3/4 inch molding (this goes in between the mirrors and also creates a frame around them.)
  • 1-2 cans Oil-Rubbed Bronze Spray Paint 
  • Liquid Nails or Wood Glue
Although the Lettered Cottage recommends differently, through trial and error, we advise the following steps in this order: 
  • Since the particle boards measure 24×48 inches, you have to ADD 3 inches to the height of one of them. To do these, cut one of your particle boards to measure 3×48 inches (Jason did this with a circular saw.) 
  • With wood glue, glue together your 24×48 inch board with your 3×48 inch board, to make a 27×48 board. 
  • Then, trim down the width of the combined board from 48 inches, to 44.5 inches (in the photo on the left, Jason is about to trim the width down with his own improvised table saw that you can learn about by clicking on the link). 
  • After this, take the 8 ft. pieces of 3/4 inch molding and cut the pieces for your frame:
    • 2 pieces that are 44.5 inches long
    • 2 pieces that are 27 inches long
  • Then, using a miter saw, miter 45 degree angles on the edges of you four frame pieces. We actually found that the miter saw was a little tough on the tiny pieces of 3/4 inch molding, so Jason ended up using a (bright yellow) Hand Miter Saw for most of the small pieces. 
  • Then, we cut the inner frame sections (we cut these with the miter saw, since we weren’t cutting angles, the molding didn’t break like it did when were were cutting 45 degree angles for the outer frame). For this we cut the following sections of 3/4 inch molding:
    • 4 vertical pieces that are 25.5 inches long 
    • 8 horizontal pieces that are 8 inches long
  • After all the pieces were cut, we placed them on a sheet of plastic and spray-painted them in our carport. DON’T DO THIS! We recommend that you don’t spray paint until all the small pieces are glued onto your large particle board. Instead of spray-painting, we recommend that you position all your pieces, along with your mirrors, and make sure that everything is fitting nice and neatly. You may have to shave a few pieces of wood down here or there to make sure that everything fits nice and snug.
Molding Sections Pre-Paint 
 Molding Sections Post-Paint
Placing it to make sure everything will fit – the only reason it looks finished is because 
we painted everything first! 
  • After you have positioned everything, glue it down with either Wood Glue or Liquid Nails. We used clamps to make sure that the pieces didn’t move AT ALL during the drying process – since this would have ruined the precision of the mirror. We also kept all the mirrors on as a guide – even though they weren’t glued down yet. Since we only had a few clamps, we had to glue about 2 pieces down at a time.
  • **Note: since we painted all of our pieces first, we found that the wood glue didn’t really secure the pieces together. We think that if you DON’T paint it first, the wood glue will secure much better. However, if you DO end up painting first, make sure to use Liquid Nails, which ended up working for us.**
  • After you glue down all of your molding pieces to the particles board, spray paint everything down. Let it dry completely. We also found out in this process, that things don’t dry very well when it is cold outside! So, you can either wait for the hottest, sunniest part of the day, or try it inside a garage or shed. 
  • After everything is painted, you can glue down your frames using Mirror Adhesive (Liquid Nails or Mirror Mastic). Let this dry.
  • Then, take the stickers off your mirrors, give them a good cleaning with Windex, and you’re DONE!!!

Thanks to my hubby who did a lot of the work on this project! Let us know if you have any questions, or if any steps didn’t make sense. Also, let us know if you try this project or a similar one yourself! 
Maybe one day we’ll tackle the giant 5×5 panel version that PB sells for $699! 

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15 Comments

  1. bj
    February 14, 2011,

    Wow, you did an amazing job. It is just as pretty as PB's. WAY TO GO!!

    Now, on the larger one..one thing that makes this one FANTASTIC is that it has BEVELED edges..very expensive. GOOD LUCK!:)

  3. Chandeen @ Designed by Chance
    February 14, 2011,

    I just wrote a post about how much I love that mirror. I used an old window, and it is not exactly the same (actually it is very different) but it makes me happy. I love this tutorial!

  6. Jill
    February 17, 2011,

    Wow, that turned out great! I'm always so impressed with people who take on big projects like that, they always seem to intimidate me if it's more than a simple craft, lol. Thanks for joining Idea Sharin' Wednesday!

    Jill
    womenwhodoitall.blogspot.com

  7. Tammy @ Type A
    February 17, 2011,

    that is awesome, you did a great job thanks for sharing this at my party.

  9. Suzie
    February 18, 2011,

    Very nice.

    I have admired the PB version, but the price tag was not so attractive!

  12. Laura B.
    February 22, 2011,

    Thanks to everyone for all the encouraging and sweet comments! Comments are what makes blogging so much fun!

  14. Janna
    November 19, 2011,

    I bought all the stuff to make one last february…started it today, will be done tomorrow 🙂 it is the perfect addition to my living room. Thanks so much!!

  15. Unknown
    December 17, 2011,

    As an "Eagan" why is it called an Eagan Mirror?

    Patrick Eagan

Comments are closed