Materials: Stave Mirror (2), various metal brackets, glue, exacto-knife, hacksaw, sander, screws
Description: My daughter has recently taken up dance and for her birthday, we wanted to get her a mirror to practice in. However, mirror sold by dance companies are over the top expensive. In this hack, I attempted to reconfigure 2 Ikea Stave mirrors to become one big dance worth mirror.
Step 1 - remove backing. The mirrors come with a piece of balsa wood (2 each). Remove those by simply pulling them off.
Step 2 - remove one of the long sides of the mirror frame by carefully pulling out the "staple." Once removed, I used an exacto knife to open up the seam and eventually carefully was able to pull it apart. Once one side is off, simply pull back the wood and the other side will just come off easily. Do this again for the other mirror.
Step 3 - I used a hacksaw and sander to smooth out the edges and was careful to not damage the mirror. The key here is to get the wood and mirror flush so that when you assemble the final piece, the seam is as minimized as possible.
Step 4 - I used 4 metal brackets and glue to put the 2 mirrors together (see pictures). Also, glue the seams of the mirror to be safe. Let it dry for a few hours - I was anxious and didn't let it try and it messed up my hack a bit.
Step 5 - Once the 2 mirrors are attached, I used metal brackets to secure it to a wall in the basement.
Step 6 - Clean mirror
Notes:
- I knew the seam would be imperfect even possibly very bad. I think it turned out OK for initial dance needs.
- I considered not using the frame at all and just mounting the mirror directly to the wall, but think it looks a bit nicer this way
~ Marc Sirkin, CT
