The Mirror Came Down!

When we first moved into this house, something about this mirror over the fireplace just bugged me. It was too large and over-powering. And I just knew it wasn't original. For a home built in 1945, this just wasn't typical. I figured it must have been added more in the 1960's. 

Once we moved in we noticed there was a switch plate by our thermostat near the entrance of the living room. The little rectangle spot where the light switch toggle would be was empty and there was what appeared to be scotch tape covering the opening...which was then painted over. So, fueled by many episodes of  Mike Holmes on DIY network, we checked the wires to see if they were live. And they were. So what did they go to?

So, I was in full Monica Gellar mode (...hopefully you've all seen the episode where she puts a million holes in the wall of her apartment trying to find what the switch did?)  I was convinced that the switch went to the outlet on top of the fireplace. Makes sense: plug a lamp or two there so when you walk in the room you can just turn on the lights. So my husband bought a switch and we got it all going. But that was not it, the switch did nothing. This is the moment I realized....there had to have been SCONCES before the mirror!!

Thus recommenced my campaign against the mirror. Thinking back, I recall my husband saying in the beginning that it would make the room too dark to take it down. He may have actually been right at the time. Since we moved in, though, our neighbor lost a huge maple tree in a big storm we had. It was the week I was due with our now three year old son so I remember it vividly. That tree provided full shade for half of our house (the half the living room is on) until at least noon every day. Suddenly, we had light. I had to re-do our entire front garden from a shade garden to full sun. It was crazy. So the mirror wasn't as big a deal anymore. 

I wouldn't say I was nagging about it. I campaigned. I brought it up a lot, stating my reasons. I talked about it with other people. Asked my brother-in-law "How would you remove this mirror?" Mentioned it on my Instagram. I STAYED ON MESSAGE. Finally one day he just said "okay let's do it!" 

Then, I got scared. I mean, like, how do you take down a mirror that is 78" by 45" large?? I hate to admit we just kind of started. Then I remembered those little pop-ups they do on DIY networks "DIY Disasters" that say "if so-and-so had just gone to DIYnetwork.com and watched our video on this they would be fine." So that's what I did and we were cruising after that.

  

We taped it up with some gorilla tape in case it broke. We geared ourselves up with gloves, long sleeves, long pants, and protective eye wear. After a lot of shimmying and wedging and effort it came out in one piece! We had a scary few minutes moving it to the garage. It was SO heavy. It got there in one piece and was picked up a few days later from a mom in my mom's group that is going to use it for a yoga studio! Farewell, mirror!

 

We found this amazing wallpaper behind the mirror!



And WIRING FOR SCONCES! Plastered over and buried. There was a little bit sticking out of one so i started digging and sure enough!! There it was.



Porcelain wire nuts and all. 




 
The boxes were stuffed with newspaper before being plastered. The newspapers were dated March 26, 1946. The spring after the home was built (1945 according to the records we have.) So it would seem they maybe never even installed sconces? I plan to install some once we know the electrical is good to go...probably a little work needed there.



Since this photo I have removed the wallpaper. I used a steamer and most of it came off easily. I saved one full piece so I can maybe frame it. It is really beautiful and intricate...maybe just a bit much for an entire room. The sad thing for me is it turns out that our living room walls have the wall paper under the paint...they never removed it. So I have to smooth out the edges from the painted wallpaper to the plaster on top of fixing some cracking and the saw marks when we were trying to find the sconce wiring. I have begun patching the plaster...I just need to sand. I've been putting it off. The mess it will make!! Ugh.

Once it is sanded I hope to paint it to match the rest of the room and go from there. We discussed doing shiplap or some sort of accent above. I think I'm going to see how the paint works before we go to the next level.

Stay tuned!!

xo
jamie