Exciting days continue on ‘One Brick At A Time’, and we are proud to have another first here today. Our first guest post, ‘How To Make A Stunning Mirror Gallery Wall’ by our very first guest writer here, Preethi Prabhu. I’m sure you’ve seen the photo of this wall by now and are as much in awe of this beauty as I am.

I first saw this beautiful wall on Preethi’s Instagram feed some time back. Though I did leave an appreciative comment on that post, I didn’t know Preethi well enough then and it was left at that. As it turns out, Preethi is as nice a person as she is an interior designer. It has been so easy to make friends with her and one of the many results of our friendship (I’ve realised we make a great team!) is this post.

Today Preethi tells us how she went about making this spectacular mirror gallery wall. As with so many beautiful things, it didn’t happen overnight. It happened gradually, over time. Every time Preethi reinvented the gallery wall, it only got better. Makes me wonder what it will look like a year from now! 🙂

So let us hand it over to Preethi to show us how she did it.

How To Make A Stunning Mirror Gallery Wall:

The first time I saw the Kutch leather work mirror was in an online store. I’ve always wanted to create a wall full of mirrors, and this looked like a perfect option. But it wasn’t cost effective at 700 bucks a piece, so I let the idea be in my head.

Look 1: A Small Arrangement on a Grey Wall

I found them again at Gurjari, the government handicraft store of Gujarat and they were quite affordable, so I picked up a few and had a small arrangement on my bedroom wall.

It looked fabulous on a grey wall and I knew it would look fabulous on a black wall. On one of my subsequent visits to Gurjari, I saw that the mirrors were on a clearance sale so I picked up all of them that were in good condition. All in all for 40 mirrors of different sizes, I paid about 3.5k, which I think was a super steal.

Look 2: A Gallery on a Chalkboard Wall

When I moved into my studio space, I needed an area where I did not want it to look like an office, I created a black feature wall with chalk board paint.

How I created the mirror gallery wall?
I knew I wanted a wall full of mirrors and to give myself a jumping off point. I decided to start from the centre. When I am doing a gallery wall, I like to start from the centre of the wall, 60 inches from the ground. That’s the average eye level of a person, so any artwork that has its centre at 60 inches from ground looks fabulous and has the best impact. But this wall of mine had a switch board in the middle so I had to start above it.

Since I was working with chalk board paint, I did not have to worry about doing an arrangement on the floor. I marked the outline of the first centre mirror and then built around it. All the mirrors  were laid out on the floor for me to see the size and shape.

I would pick one place it on the wall, draw the outline and take a few steps back to see if I am okay with it. Design is a lot to do with trusting your eyes. You can eyeball distances between things, co-ordination and pretty much anything and they will be very close to accurate.

Once I had all the markings up, all it needed was the carpenter to drill screws and hang the mirrors.

Final Look: Mirror Gallery Wall on Wallpaper

Two and a half years after that when I renovated the office, the mirrors went into storage. Last Diwali I decided to gift myself a mirror gallery wall in my living room and I repeated the process. I already had this beautiful paisley wallpaper on the wall.

This time around I was more confident. I laid down all the mirrors on the floor and positioned the centre piece.

 

My team member Deepak marked and fixed them to the wall. So until we put the last mirror up, we did not know how it would turn out. The layering of the mirrors on the wallpaper looks luxurious and dramatic at the same time. The evening mood lighting here is to die for. I am not too sure how long they will remain here, but until such time I enjoy this wall every evening.

Here’s a before and after to show you the amazing transformation!

This step-by-step little video will show you exactly how the mirrors went up!

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About Preethi Prabhu:

Wasn’t that something? And just the way we like it around this blog.. simple and spectacular! In case you’re wondering about the person behind the design, here’s a little something about Preethi Prabhu. Preethi is an interior designer based in Bangalore. When an engineer with 8 years of work experience in IT gives it all up to become an interior designer, you know that’s where her heart truly lies. Preethi has also been writing a decor blog for 10 years now. If you want simple DIYs and tips to a beautiful home, you must click here to check out her blog. You can also read more about Preethi here.

Hope you liked this amazing mirror gallery wall transformation as much as I did. I’m sure Preethi will be checking this post, so do leave her your thoughts in the comments below.

Until next time,