This was suppose to be one of those quick, five-minute kind of projects. I brought this cute mirror out of storage (it originally hung in the powder room) taped it off, and was going to give it a quick makeover with some coral spray paint and put it in my office.
Instead, I lost the can of spray paint somewhere between the house and the garage. (Spent 20 minutes looking for it.) Then, I made a trip to the hardware store to buy more spray paint in the same color but it was no where to be found. (Spent another 20 minutes at the store looking for that.) Came back home, resolved to paint it a new color, and ran over the dang mirror with our van (because I had forgotten I left the already-taped mirror in the middle of the garage floor).
Here’s to hoping that seven-year bad luck thing doesn’t apply if you just run over it and don’t actually drop it. . .
Have you attempted any projects lately that seem to be cursed?
(I just like reading your stories.)
What a bummer! Ah well, you win some you lose some.
ReplyDeleteJenny
Www.simcoestreet blogspot.com
Oh no! I managed to crack the top of my mirrored nightstand when painting the trim. Tried to pop out the mirror which was apparently glued down. Made me madder than an old, wet hen! I feel your pain, girl.
ReplyDeleteOh man, I am so sorry! shizz happens! Hard to find the perfect spray can of coral too, I know! Hope you have a great weekend.
ReplyDeletexo Nancy
Powellbrowerhome.com
Oh lord. I don't even know how to begin- the last few times I have begun any project my kids and circumstances haven't let me finish. Its all cursed lol!!
ReplyDeletePut cork in it and it will be a lovely memo and photo display!
ReplyDeleteGreat idea, except the frame was cracked a little, too and I got so mad, I just threw the whole thing in the garbage!
DeleteI would have thrown it in the garbage after ALL of that too! What a bummer!
Delete~Sarah
HA! I ran over a mirror once in my driveway as well! No bad luck ... someone was just trying to tell you that the mirror is not what you need!!! xo
ReplyDeleteOh Emily, I'm so sorry! That would have been a great idea! I don't know if this is a 'cursed' design story, but after wallpapering our entire foyer with a large scale damask print, I realized I had put the paper on upside down! Luckily, the damask looks fine either way, but it was meant to go the other way around. Only I would do something like that. I just chose to embrace it, because, well- I didn't have any choice! :) I guess it's a hallway with a story, now!
ReplyDeleteStrangely, this makes me feel better :)
DeleteOh no, haha! Time to pop out the rest of the broken mirror and replace it with wood painted in chalkboard paint!
ReplyDeleteOh no, I'm so sorry that happened to you. I broke the glass from a large picture frame. I hung it before bed and woke up to a loud crash. I really like Betsy's idea!
ReplyDeleteWe salvaged a very old, etched glass window out of a house on my husband's family homestead. We were afraid that it would fall out of the house and be broken. He had a mirror custom cut to fit behind the glass, and built a barnwood frame to secure it all. And then he used an air nailer to fasten the glass to the frame. Now that lovely mirrored piece of etched glass has a large crack in one corner.
ReplyDeleteSo so sorry!!! I can only imagine what you felt!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteDon't worry about that bad luck stuff.....
Something better is in the future..just wait!
I agree! Don't believe in any of that superstition stuff anyway :)
DeleteOh my gosh! So sorry about the mirror. I am pretty good at destroying things too, so I feel your pain :( Hopefully the 7 years thing is just a myth. haha
ReplyDeleteOh my goodness! Your story made me laugh cause I feel your pain:) There is no such thing as a "five-minute project!" They ALL end up requiring a trip to Home Depot:) Well, now you have an excuse to buy something new! (Or old:)
ReplyDeleteOh dang! I'm the biggest klutz, the incidents are endless. At least it wasn't a bike or stroller!
ReplyDeleteI ran over the tricycle last year. . .
DeleteGah! Keep going. Take the mirror out, mix up some chalkboard paint (1 cup any color latex paint + 2 tbsp non sanded grout), paint the the frame with your coral paint, and the backing that was behind the glass with the chalk board paint. Same frame, different use.
ReplyDeleteGood luck. I'll cross my fingers for you. Maybe that will counteract the whole mirror breaking thing? That works, right?
Oh no! I seriously would have cried.
ReplyDeleteI love that you posted this story! Sounds exactly like 50% of my DIYs. :)
ReplyDeleteOh I hate to laugh because I'm sure you were furious!! But that is hilarious!! Sounds like a snippet out of my life's book:) Well I wasn't gonna say anything but I hated the mirror anyway:) just teasing and better luck next time and surely not in 7 years!
ReplyDeleteLaura
House Envy
Is it too soon to laugh? I would've been so so mad at myself!! But reading your story makes me laugh because it's so something that I would do. Hope your weekend is fabulous to make up for this!!
ReplyDeleteOh no! And it was so pretty!! Just the kind of thing I would do, too.
ReplyDeleteNow you can make it into a chalk board or a message board - though chicken wire might not quite work with the gold...but in the coral? I've been looking for a large frame to make a craft organizer...I guess I just need to get the mirror and have the accident!
ReplyDeleteThat is too funny. Don't you just hate when stuff like that happens? Better luck next time.
ReplyDeleteOh that is AWFUL! Especially because that mirror was really great. I love the frame! Soooo sorry -- glad you can laugh about it : )
ReplyDeletetotal bum dog deal! you could always transform it into a cork board instead? ;)
ReplyDeleteoh gosh, I thought you hung it on a temporary nail and it fell and shattered... not that I have ever done that, ever.
ReplyDeleteWhat a bummer! I have broken several mirrors and no bad luck here so fingers crossed!!
ReplyDeleteAhh, I hate days like that where all goes wrong :( I like Kim's idea turn it into a cork board or chalkboard have a new mirror cut for it??
ReplyDeleteHahahahaha....I love stories like this. because I would so do it.
ReplyDeleteI have a clumsy new home owner story that might make you smile.... Our living room ceiling was full of popcorn esbestos. We didn't really want to scrape it so we decided to paint it. We were on a time crunch because our furniture was coming in a week, we would be at work and we needed the house painted. We saw that you could roll it with a thick roller. So we tried. And that?! Was an epic fail!!! So he went out to buy a paint sprayer. And then realized that paint sprayers do not work upside down. Then we bucked up and sprayed the ceiling. But not in a nice way. We pulled the hose in and drenched it all (and our pretty hardwood floors). Then scraped and then realized that some loser had put 4 layers of wallpaper on the ceiling that needed to be removed before it could ever look normal. With an entire Saturday gone and nerves of steel worn down, we finally hired a contractor to come and fix the damn thing.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure if this tops your paint can/vehicle story or not, but last fall I was painting some things in our garage and a can of spray paint rolled into my husband's garage stall and ... wait for it ... he ran over it and it exploded all over the side of his car. Fortunately, we have connections to a very kind auto body shop owner who met us at his shop on a Friday evening to remove the massive splatter. Whew!
ReplyDeleteToo bad about your mirror. That would have been a fun before and after! There will be others, I'm sure! :)
This isn't a project that went wrong, but I think you'll appreciate it. When my twins were infants and I was living on, basically, NO sleep (I know you get this) I was running out to do an errand and backed right into my mother's car in the driveway. Feel better yet? :)
ReplyDeleteSusan
simplymodernhome.com
Oh man! that stinks!! is the frame damaged? Could you make it a pinboard instead? What a bummer. What brand of coral spraypaint do you use? I am looking to paint my bedroom lamps that color, however i've only seen the krylon brand online - haven't found it in person yet.
ReplyDeleteGasp! How awful..because that mirror was lovely. I have a story to share. Several years ago I bought some second-hand chairs I thought would work for our eat-in kitchen. They didn't but they did work for my friend's house. Recently she painted them and recovered the seats in grain sacks. Had them in the garage while working on them and yup....you guessed it, hit one of them with the car because it was positioned in front of the parking space. Horror!Thankfully the other 3 chairs were unharmed and they look terrific at her table!
ReplyDeleteP.S. I once broke a mirror and it actually warranted GOOD luck for a very long time :-) I choose to think those old wives tales come from old wives who had nothing better to do than think up stupid sayings. Hahahhaha! You'll either find another mirror or find something better for the space :-)
ReplyDeleteI can definitely relate! I found a not so attractive tray on sale at Target for only $7 and I was thrilled for a DIY weekend project. My goal was to make it look like those cute West Elm trays. I found a really neat spray paint color, too! However, after (I think) damaging the spray head while opening the can I ended up having spray paint all over me, all over the newspaper, and all over the grass. It took multiple days to try to spray this thing for it to only end up in the trash. It just never came out evenly and there was more newspaper stuck to it than paint. I guess somethings are just worth paying extra money for :)
ReplyDeleteI have been working on a tufted headboard for my little one's room. I bought a headboard on Craigslist because it had a great shape to upholster. I have gone through three staple guns, two types of upholstery thread, three coats of paint that have bubbled (I finally got it smoothed out), and fabric that shifted and BARELY made it to the edge. After all that, I realized the vintage headboard was too wide for the twin bed I want to use. I ended up cutting the legs off and changing it so it will hang on the wall instead. I have been working on it on and off for a month now. AHHHH!! The end is in sight. I'm so sorry about your mirror:(
ReplyDelete*** Em, I soooo feel for you (!!!)........ BUUUUT, I was having a verrrry bad a.m. (health-wise), and your tale of woe DID make me smile a bit, my friend, because, of course, we've all had "THOSE KINDS OF DAYS"........... So I guess what I'm saying is, believe it or not, THANKS FOR SHARING!!! (Tho I A*M sorry about the mirror!)...
ReplyDeleteHere's to a better WEEKEND for you!
Hugs,
Linda in AZ
bellesmom1234@comcast.net
Funny. Thanks for keeping it real. Yesterday I staged my boys' bathroom, including new paint, to get our house ready to sell. I shopped around and even went to TJ maxx twice to get the perfect accessories. In the process I forgot my daughter's violin lesson ($18), lost a bath towel in one store that I had bought in another ($10), and couldn't sleep last night because my back hurt so much! However, the bathroom looks great!
ReplyDeleteAwww, big sad face. What a disappointment since you no doubt spent a little time getting that tape just right.
ReplyDeleteOh no!! I am glad I am not the only one who does things like this! hahaha. And no--broken plenty of mirrors---I think you are A-okay!
ReplyDeleteThat's terrible!
ReplyDeleteI always feel like my room has a black hole in it
I have about 100 half finished projects because I always lose my materials half way through the process.. oh well, sometimes you just need to laugh it off!
http://withlov32012.blogspot.ca/
emily ~ I have a "gold" frame so similar and I want to paint it....what kind of spray paint do I buy if I don't want it glossy?
ReplyDeleteYou can buy flat spray paints. I would just ask the guys at the paint desk what they recommend :)
DeleteI feel like you are describing one of my projects. I just broke a mirror too for my powder room makeover and I was told it's not bad luck if you weren't looking into it. So lets hope that it's true ;)
ReplyDeleteI bought a beautiful frame in Dollarama (dollar stores in canada ! ) for $3 which pretty much resembled like this ikea's frame (http://www.ikea.com/ca/en/catalog/products/70151043/) and hubby broke the glass .... And the worst part is that I cant find that anymore in dollar store... ! I still have it in my storage and I only get madder whenever I see that... Somethings are valuable more than what we paid for them... :(
ReplyDeleteLOL! Oh no! I'm telling you...it's the "easiest" ones that always get me! This project was the worst. I finally ended up throwing it away the other day. I think I just kept it around for awhile to make myself feel better!
ReplyDeletehttp://tocrave.blogspot.com/2012/05/so-cheap-so-easy-rope-ball.html
I spilled half a gallon of paint on my area rug last year during the One Room Challenge just as I was finished painting my living room. Lucky it was summer and I was able to hose it off on the grass, which just turned my grass white!
ReplyDeleteI am sorry about the mirror :(
So, here's a little tale to make you feel better about yourself. My kids drew on my sofa cover with a pen--just a little, but it bugged me, so I cleaned it with a magic eraser. It worked like magic, totally taking the ink off, but it also made that spot cleaner than the rest of the couch, so I took off the cushion covers and threw them in the washing machine. THEY TOTALLY SHRUNK! My tiny little ink spot turned into a huge ordeal that ended in me making new slip covers for my sofa.
ReplyDeleteSorry the mirror did not work out!
I've loved reading your disaster stories. Why do other people's catastrophes always seem so funny? :) After posting this today, I returned home tonight to find that my 6-year-old lost her front tooth on our white slipcovered chair and splattered it with blood. The fun never ends!
ReplyDeleteHydrogen peroxide gets blood out like magic.
DeleteOh, yes! Don't I know it. I spent a long while with a bottle in my hand last night :) It's so much better than it was when I first saw it.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteOh no, Emily! Thanks for turning this into a funny story although I'm sure it wasn't funny at all at the time. Sometimes there's nothing to do but laugh! I just patched up a few holes after moving some frames around in the dining room and forgot the original paint color. Not a speck to be found in the garage. I bought some more thinking I recognized the name of the paint and spent a day thinking "When it dries it will be a perfect match." I ended up reprinting the whole room.
ReplyDeleteI would cry so bad. Seriously, I cry the most when it comes to projects in my house lol!
ReplyDeletewahhhhhhhhhhh! bummer! haha, and no, nothing lately has gone wrong, mostly because I haven't even attempted any project in forEVER! Maybe you can make that mirror-less frame some kind of chalk board or cover the inside with cork/fabric and make a pin board.. it's such a pretty frame. Knowing you, you will come up with some fabulous idea :o)
ReplyDeleteI recently bought a small painting on eBay. It was already matted with a double mat and I only needed to put it in a frame (8x10). I have a stash of frames so I just went through them and found one that I liked. Took it apart, cleaned the glass, waited to make sure the glass was completely dry and popped in the painting. Turned it over to make sure it looked good (yes!) and then proceeded to put the backing on. Only it wouldn't go on b/c of the thickness of the double mat. Okay, find another frame. Found another one (which already had a mat), took out that mat, cleaned the glass (and waited for it to dry) put in the painting with the double mat, but it wouldn't fit b/c it was about an 1/8 of an inch too wide. I don't have a mat cutter for trimming it, so I needed to either find another mat or frame. I was liking this frame and didn't want to use the mat that came with it (boring white) so now I had to find a mat that was the right size and color to complement the painting. After some rooting around in my stash, I found a mat (which I like better than the original) and it fit in the frame. The painting looks great and I'm quite pleased with it. It was just frustrating that a 10 minute task turned into an hour and a half project. So, I say all of this to say that I bet a better mirror is in your future. Let us know when you find it (or it finds you)!
ReplyDeleteWe were showing our house and I really quickly put on our last set of new shutters before the showing. Well... in my haste I put them on upside down. And they were drilled into the brick!!
ReplyDeleteIt happens to the best of us! We could probably all write a post " DIY Gone Wild" . Good luck!!!! :)
ReplyDeleteWhat a bummer. I'm sure you just wanted to smack yourself in the forehead. I have several dresser mirrors in my basement that I'm planning to create chalkboards out of. Hopefully they will turn out better than this!
ReplyDeleteI am so sorry for you. Been there done that...only not with a car. My daughter was pulling her car in the garage a few weeks back and when she hit the garage door opener to open the door her dog ran out of the garage as she was intering the garage. She jumped out while the car was moving to catch her dog from running away leaving her two kids in the back seat. The car hit her freezer, the freezer pushed into the wall and behind the wall is her hallway with lots of family pictures hanging on it. Total damage...front bumper of car was bowed in, freezer front is bowed in and the lid won't close, wall is bowed in, interior wall has a bowed out look to it, and a lot of broken picture frames and glass that WAS hanging on the wall. LOL She does't normally do things like this. The kids where okay though. She has become the butt of a lot of jokes...like did you hear what Lori did. Thank you for the laugh.
ReplyDeleteAt least it wasn't a laptop...(my friend speaks from experience).
ReplyDeleteOh no I feel so bad...and yet I am laughing cause this sounds like something I would do. I am just glad that it was not like almost all the way finished and then you ran over it...good luck with your next masterpiece. Hugs, Di
ReplyDeleteToo funny! It wasn't meant to be. The next project will be waaayy better anyway.
ReplyDelete...seems your living my life....
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDelete