Acid Washed Mirror and Tutorial

I have always loved Mandi's (from Vintage Revival) acid washed mirrors.

And since imitation is the sincerest from of flattery, I thought I'd try it as well.  :) 

I started with a $5 mirror that we purchased at a auction. 

I removed the mirror and painted the frame with Liquid Leaf. I LOVE this stuff. It gives the same look as gold leaving but with way less mess. It costs $5.50 and you can get it at Hobby Lobby.

I heavily dried brushed the frame leaving a little wood to show through. A little goes a long way, but it dries very quickly so be aware. 

Once the frame was finished I laid the mirror face down on an old blanket so as not to scratch the mirror's surface.

Mandi suggests using Jasco Paint and Epoxy Remover to remove the paint from the back of the mirror, but I had Citristrip on hand so I used that. 

I used two old brushed to apply the stripper rather than a rag. A rag applied to stripper too evenly, and since I wanted it to look authentic, the brush gave me a nice uneven application. 

The Citristrip took three applications to get most of the paint off and I used a putty knife to scrape the peeled paint. 

Once the stripper was removed I used a damp rag to wipe any remaining dirt etc off.

Then it was time for the acid wash. 

Muriatic Acid is normally used to clean pools. You can get it at Home Depot for $7.

(The guy who helped me find it asked if I was cleaning my pool. I told him no, that it was for a craft. He looked at me like I was one batty lady. Oh well. :))

NOTE: PLEASE be so careful when using the Muriatic acid. Wear close toed shoes, gloves, goggles and a mask. This is some viciously nasty stuff.

I poured the acid into an old Windex bottel and sprayed the outside edges of the mirror and lightly misted the middle.

I waited about 20 seconds and then washed the acid off with a garden hose. 

I repeated the process and sprayed, waited and rinsed one more time till I got the look I wanted.

NOTE: I was told that the acid, if left in the spray bottle, would eat threw the bottle. So when I was done spraying, I emptied the spray bottle back into the original container. 

I decided to line the back of the mirror with material so that some color would show through the parts that had been stripped by the acid. You could also paint the back of the mirror in a color of your choice for the same effect.

If you chose to be a material girl, you could use a spray adhesive to attach the material to your mirror. I skipped that step and just laid the material on the mirror and screwed the back to the frame and the material stays in place fine. 

And here's the final product!

I love the peeps of green and pink popping through.

I wanted mine to have kind of a mercury glass look, so I chose not to let too much of the reflective finish be eaten by the acid; but you obviously can create the finished look to your liking.

The mirror is available in The Shop at the top of the page. :)