Easy DIY Trumeau Mirror with Efex
Trumeau – a mirror having a painted or carved panel above the glass in the same frame.
We think Trumeau mirrors are so special. We have seen many DIY Trumeaus like the great piece built by our friend and Efex stockist Virgina Weatherby. But we had been envisioning one that’s extra large. One day my husband suggested he could make one, so I gave him a drawing and dimensions, and look what I got back:
The process of building the frame was very straight forward.
The frame measures 6 feet by 3.5 feet. Construction starts with a single sheet of 1/4 inch birch plywood. Cut the plywood to 6′ x 3′.5″.
To lay out the mirror we measure the plywood so the mirror is 2/3’s of the length and the top area is 1/3rd of the length. You can cut the frame to any size but to make it balance you should use the golden ratio.
Using simple wood trims from the local hardware store, we trimmed out the two sections.
The top trim is 5 1/2 inches, laid on the plywood:
The side trim is 1 1/2 inches, again laid on the plywood:
The individual frames for the mirror and the top panel all have six-inch surrounds with 1/2 inch trim. Don’t forget to miter cut the corners of the trim, glue, then nail in place, making certain they are square.
To finish the sides we used a simple one-inch board so we did not have rough plywood edges.
Wow, big and bold! Now, how to finish it…
For more ideas on Trumeau Mirrors check out these previous posts. One is from our dealer Stacy at Faux Studio Designs, and the other is Virgina’s YouTube Tutorial.