Making a Rustic Mirror Fixture with DIY Brackets and Lighting

The process of creating this rustic mirror fixture began with taking apart an old mirror that had become obsolete. The glass was intact, but the frame had been ripped off to remove the mirror from its wall bracket. I decided to keep the back panel as it was still in good condition and had a nice texture to it.

To create the brackets, I used a table saw and cut down individual pieces of wood into smaller parts. I then laid out the four brackets on the back piece, leaving enough space for the bulbs, their fixtures, and for the wiring to come out from the back end. The design resulted in two lights facing off onto each side.

CA glue was used to hold these brackets in place because the surface was painted, and a little bit of glue on each fixture to slide them into the hole. These were pressure fit but the glue just helped keep them in place for safety. I also drilled a hole right in the center of this back panel that lined up with where the wires came through from the wall.

To frost the LED lights, I pulled off the plastic sheeting and went over both sides with an orbital sander. This scuffed it up and added a nice diffusion effect to the glass. The process was quite easy, and I managed to complete this step without any major issues.

I cut two short sections of lamp wire so that I could connect all these fixtures together on one side of the fixture. Twisting two white wires with one of my lamp wires together and adding a wire nut made it possible to secure the connections. The same procedure was repeated for the black wires, resulting in four pairs of wires being reduced to two pairs of wires.

The final light bulbs were screwed into place, and I tested the fixture to ensure that it worked properly. It was indeed easy to complete this project, but a warning should be given: if you decide to do electrical work, make sure to follow your local codes and get some knowledge beforehand. Electrical work can be dangerous if done incorrectly.

The design of this rustic mirror fixture is not unique, and that's okay because it was really just about updating what was there. If you're not into the Rustic look of this type of wood, you can simply use a 1x6 and paint or stain it to get any look that you want. This project didn't cost very much, but it did take some time and effort.

Casper Sponsorship

Big thanks go out to Casper for sponsoring this video. As we've talked about before, they love their mattress, and my wife and I sleep on one as well. My kids also sleep on them. They're really fantastic, and if you need a mattress, you should definitely consider them. Go check them out and use the code "makeyou" to get $50 off any mattress purchase. They send it to your house in a box; you pull it out, and you can sleep on it for 100 nights. If you don't like it for any reason, they'll give you your money back and come take the mattress away.

Mounting the Fixture

Once I had my fixture complete, I started by making a level line where I wanted the top of the fixture to set. Using a stud finder, I found the two closest studs on each side of the power supply. Then, I found the center of the mirror below it to make sure that the fixture was centered within the mirror.

I lined up the center point of the fixture with the center point on the wall and then marked where the two studs were at those points. Long screws were added to the back surface, peeking just barely through, allowing me to get the fixture mounted on the wall. Once these were fully in place, it was finally time to wire it up.

Wiring the Fixture

This part of the process was relatively easy because I only had two pairs of wires to connect to the main power source coming from the wall. Using wire nuts to secure the connections made it possible. The black and white wires were twisted together with one of my lamp wires, making a secure connection. Each connection was wrapped with electrical tape for extra security.

After completing this step, I added in the final light bulbs and tested the fixture to ensure that it worked properly. It did, and it was quite easy to complete this project. The design may not be unique, but it's okay because it was really just about updating what was there.

Tips and Precautions

A warning should be given: if you decide to do electrical work, make sure to follow your local codes and get some knowledge beforehand. Electrical work can be dangerous if done incorrectly. It's always better to be safe than sorry.

Conclusion

The process of creating this rustic mirror fixture was quite easy and didn't cost very much. The result is a unique and functional piece that adds ambiance to any room. If you're looking for a DIY project, this one might be worth considering.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhey I'm Bob and I like to make stuff today I'm going to make a new vanity light you may be aware that we are about to move and part of moving means preparing our current house to sell there's several things about the house that I have to go around and fix and prep but one of the things that I never got around to replacing when we bought the house was this outdated light fixture in our bathroom it's from the' 70s or ' 80s and although it's not great to look at it does work so we never got around to replacing it but now that we need to show off the house I want it to be updated so today I'm going to make a really quick and simple replacement for it it's nothing fancy but it should get the job done all right let's do it the first step was to remove the old fixture now my fixture is probably different than yours but one thing that is universal between all of them is that you need to turn off the power before you start messing with any light fixture at all it can be extremely dangerous just cut it off of the breaker before you take anything apart usually I make it a point not to talk about the cost of the things that I use in my projects because depending on where you live and what you have available that cost is really different but for this one I want to point it out because we're improving the house to sell and it's not going to cost very much money for the lamp fixtures I'm using these outdoor lamp sockets they don't have to be these outdoor ones but there's a few things about these that are really nice they have a nice taper to them so they will fit snugly into a hole that you drill they've got a black rubber top to them so they're not bad to look at and they come pre-wired out of the back these are about $150 a piece and so I got six of them I got a simple bag of wire nuts and these are made for the correct gauge of wire for those so you just wrap up the wires in one of these nuts and then wrap electrical tape around it to secure it I've got a box of LED bulbs these are the way to go these days they're a lot cheaper than they used to be and they last forever one of the coolest things about LED bulbs is that they run much cooler in temperature than a normal incandescent bulb and when you're making your own light fixtures you want to do everything you can to vent out heat or just not generate heat in the first place just to avoid any fire risk so I just took one piece of this to use for the main structure now essentially this is a 1x6 so if you don't have a used piece of wood you can just go to the home center and get a 1x6 for 7even or eight bucks and you're good to go by far the most expensive part of this project is going to be this sheet of lexan I already had this on hand from a previous project but if you went to buy this just for this project it would cost more than everything else put together this is going to be frosted to go on the bottom of it and there are a lot of other options that you could put there you could just buy a piece of glass to fit or you could find some used plexiglass and drop it in there that's the major stuff we're going to use so let's get to building I use the old fixture as a size reference cuz really I was just replacing what was already there for this project I was using an old piece of tongue and groove flooring I cut off the tongue just by running it over the table saw so I had one clean Edge the top of this light fixture doesn't really matter I just wanted the bottom to be nice looking on the miter saw I cut off one section at the end that would eventually become the two ends of my box I made marks for the miters on the edge of that so that I cut them in the right directions I made a 45° cut on both ends of this piece but making the opposite cut in the center was kind of dangerous the pieces would have been too small and hard to hold so so I used an angle gauge on my table saw to make sure that blade was exactly at 45° and then used a miter sled to cut down both of those pieces it takes extra time but getting your blade to exactly 45° is totally worth it you end up with really really nice miters next I cut down some longer pieces for the front and the back I did this the same way but these pieces were quite a bit longer and a little harder to manage on the table saw so I moved back to the miter saw now you'll notice here I did these upside down the good news was I had plenty of wood here so I just cut them a little bit shorter and you could never tell the difference with these pieces cut I put all four pieces into their final position and got all the corners kind of tight so that I could measure the inside size of this box then I ran each one of the pieces over the table saw with a lowered blade to make a little slot for the plexiglass to sit in next it was time to cut down the plexiglass to size but there's a small space at the bottom of my fence so I added a piece of MDF clamped it onto the fence and then ran the plexiglass along that so that it didn't slip under next I laid out the lamp fixtures so that I could attach them to the backer board I ended up only using four instead of six because I shortened the overall light on a separate 1x4 I marked out four pieces where I could make brackets to hold these light fixtures I made a half an inch gap on each side with a large Circle in the middle which I cut out with a forcer bit I marked out the four individual brackets but before cutting them into separate pieces I drilled each one of the holes it's just way easier to deal with one large piece than four small pieces after I had all these holes drilled I took took it to the table saw and just cut it down into individual pieces I laid out the four brackets on the back piece leaving enough space for the bulbs their fixture and for the wiring to come out the back end I ended up with two lights facing off onto each side I use CA glue to hold these in place because the surface was painted and a little bit of glue on each one of the fixtures to slide them into the hole these were pressure fit but the glue just helped keep them in place just to be safe I also drilled a hole right in the center of this back panel that lined up with where the wires came through from the wall to frost the lexand I pulled off the plastic sheeting and went over both sides with an orbital sander this scuffs it up and adds a nice diffusion I cut two short sections of lamp wire so that I could connect all these fixtures together on one side of the fixture I twisted two white wires with one of my lamp wires together and added a wire nut I did the same for the black wires and then the same procedure on the other side essentially taking four pairs of wires down to two pairs of wires I went ahead and screwed in the bulbs at this point although you do have enough room to put in the bulbs even once the whole thing's put together I slid in my plexiglass into the slot of the back piece and added some wood glue to the side panels before putting them in place typically I would shoot in brad nails into these Corners to hold the pieces together while the glue dried but this time I decided to use strap clamps I put one clamp on the bottom Edge and flipped it over adding another clamp to the top Edge you could also use 90° Corner clamps here after letting that dry for a couple of hours I took off the clamps and sanded the outside just to make it a little bit smoother to the touch big thanks to Casper for sponsoring this video you've heard me talk about him before because we love our Casper mattress my wife and I sleep on one all of my kids sleep on them they're really fantastic if you need a mattress you should definitely consider them go check them out and you can even try it out in your house risk-free if you go to casper.com slake use the code make you get $50 off any mattress purchase they send it to your house in a box you pull it out you can sleep on it for a 100 nights and if you don't like it for any reason they will give you your money back and come take the mattress away it's a fantastic deal it's an extreme ly comfortable mattress we love it be sure to go check them out thanks Casper to mount it on the wall I started by making a level line where I wanted the top of the fixture to set I used a stud finder to find the two closest studs one on each side of the power supply then I found the center of the mirror below it to make sure that the fixture was centered within the mirror I lined up the center point of the fixture with the center point on the wall and then marked where the two studs were at those points I added some long screws these are just barely peeking through the back surface so that I could get it mounted on the wall and and then drive them into the studs that I had marked once I had these fully in it was finally just time to wire it up this was really easy because at this point I just had two pairs of wires that I used wire nuts to connect to the main power source coming from the wall after I had all three wires Twisted together with the wire nut I wrapped each one of these connections with electrical tape just to secure them a little bit more I added in the final light bulbs and then tested it out it works and it was pretty easy to do the design is not really unique and that's okay because it was really just about updating what was there and if you're not into The Rustic look of this type of wood you can just use a 1x6 and paint it or stain it to get any look that you want this was really quick and easy to do and it didn't cost very much but a warning if you do electrical work make sure to follow your local codes look up some electrical stuff and get some knowledge because it can be really dangerous if you do it wrong I've got to go do a lot of other stuff to get our house ready to sell if you want to check out some other videos I've got several here and don't forget to subscribe that's it for this one guys thanks for watching I'll see you next time hey I'm Bob and I like to make stuff today I'm going to make a today I'm going to make a new bath hey I'm Bob and I like to make stuff today I'm going to make a newhey I'm Bob and I like to make stuff today I'm going to make a new vanity light you may be aware that we are about to move and part of moving means preparing our current house to sell there's several things about the house that I have to go around and fix and prep but one of the things that I never got around to replacing when we bought the house was this outdated light fixture in our bathroom it's from the' 70s or ' 80s and although it's not great to look at it does work so we never got around to replacing it but now that we need to show off the house I want it to be updated so today I'm going to make a really quick and simple replacement for it it's nothing fancy but it should get the job done all right let's do it the first step was to remove the old fixture now my fixture is probably different than yours but one thing that is universal between all of them is that you need to turn off the power before you start messing with any light fixture at all it can be extremely dangerous just cut it off of the breaker before you take anything apart usually I make it a point not to talk about the cost of the things that I use in my projects because depending on where you live and what you have available that cost is really different but for this one I want to point it out because we're improving the house to sell and it's not going to cost very much money for the lamp fixtures I'm using these outdoor lamp sockets they don't have to be these outdoor ones but there's a few things about these that are really nice they have a nice taper to them so they will fit snugly into a hole that you drill they've got a black rubber top to them so they're not bad to look at and they come pre-wired out of the back these are about $150 a piece and so I got six of them I got a simple bag of wire nuts and these are made for the correct gauge of wire for those so you just wrap up the wires in one of these nuts and then wrap electrical tape around it to secure it I've got a box of LED bulbs these are the way to go these days they're a lot cheaper than they used to be and they last forever one of the coolest things about LED bulbs is that they run much cooler in temperature than a normal incandescent bulb and when you're making your own light fixtures you want to do everything you can to vent out heat or just not generate heat in the first place just to avoid any fire risk so I just took one piece of this to use for the main structure now essentially this is a 1x6 so if you don't have a used piece of wood you can just go to the home center and get a 1x6 for 7even or eight bucks and you're good to go by far the most expensive part of this project is going to be this sheet of lexan I already had this on hand from a previous project but if you went to buy this just for this project it would cost more than everything else put together this is going to be frosted to go on the bottom of it and there are a lot of other options that you could put there you could just buy a piece of glass to fit or you could find some used plexiglass and drop it in there that's the major stuff we're going to use so let's get to building I use the old fixture as a size reference cuz really I was just replacing what was already there for this project I was using an old piece of tongue and groove flooring I cut off the tongue just by running it over the table saw so I had one clean Edge the top of this light fixture doesn't really matter I just wanted the bottom to be nice looking on the miter saw I cut off one section at the end that would eventually become the two ends of my box I made marks for the miters on the edge of that so that I cut them in the right directions I made a 45° cut on both ends of this piece but making the opposite cut in the center was kind of dangerous the pieces would have been too small and hard to hold so so I used an angle gauge on my table saw to make sure that blade was exactly at 45° and then used a miter sled to cut down both of those pieces it takes extra time but getting your blade to exactly 45° is totally worth it you end up with really really nice miters next I cut down some longer pieces for the front and the back I did this the same way but these pieces were quite a bit longer and a little harder to manage on the table saw so I moved back to the miter saw now you'll notice here I did these upside down the good news was I had plenty of wood here so I just cut them a little bit shorter and you could never tell the difference with these pieces cut I put all four pieces into their final position and got all the corners kind of tight so that I could measure the inside size of this box then I ran each one of the pieces over the table saw with a lowered blade to make a little slot for the plexiglass to sit in next it was time to cut down the plexiglass to size but there's a small space at the bottom of my fence so I added a piece of MDF clamped it onto the fence and then ran the plexiglass along that so that it didn't slip under next I laid out the lamp fixtures so that I could attach them to the backer board I ended up only using four instead of six because I shortened the overall light on a separate 1x4 I marked out four pieces where I could make brackets to hold these light fixtures I made a half an inch gap on each side with a large Circle in the middle which I cut out with a forcer bit I marked out the four individual brackets but before cutting them into separate pieces I drilled each one of the holes it's just way easier to deal with one large piece than four small pieces after I had all these holes drilled I took took it to the table saw and just cut it down into individual pieces I laid out the four brackets on the back piece leaving enough space for the bulbs their fixture and for the wiring to come out the back end I ended up with two lights facing off onto each side I use CA glue to hold these in place because the surface was painted and a little bit of glue on each one of the fixtures to slide them into the hole these were pressure fit but the glue just helped keep them in place just to be safe I also drilled a hole right in the center of this back panel that lined up with where the wires came through from the wall to frost the lexand I pulled off the plastic sheeting and went over both sides with an orbital sander this scuffs it up and adds a nice diffusion I cut two short sections of lamp wire so that I could connect all these fixtures together on one side of the fixture I twisted two white wires with one of my lamp wires together and added a wire nut I did the same for the black wires and then the same procedure on the other side essentially taking four pairs of wires down to two pairs of wires I went ahead and screwed in the bulbs at this point although you do have enough room to put in the bulbs even once the whole thing's put together I slid in my plexiglass into the slot of the back piece and added some wood glue to the side panels before putting them in place typically I would shoot in brad nails into these Corners to hold the pieces together while the glue dried but this time I decided to use strap clamps I put one clamp on the bottom Edge and flipped it over adding another clamp to the top Edge you could also use 90° Corner clamps here after letting that dry for a couple of hours I took off the clamps and sanded the outside just to make it a little bit smoother to the touch big thanks to Casper for sponsoring this video you've heard me talk about him before because we love our Casper mattress my wife and I sleep on one all of my kids sleep on them they're really fantastic if you need a mattress you should definitely consider them go check them out and you can even try it out in your house risk-free if you go to casper.com slake use the code make you get $50 off any mattress purchase they send it to your house in a box you pull it out you can sleep on it for a 100 nights and if you don't like it for any reason they will give you your money back and come take the mattress away it's a fantastic deal it's an extreme ly comfortable mattress we love it be sure to go check them out thanks Casper to mount it on the wall I started by making a level line where I wanted the top of the fixture to set I used a stud finder to find the two closest studs one on each side of the power supply then I found the center of the mirror below it to make sure that the fixture was centered within the mirror I lined up the center point of the fixture with the center point on the wall and then marked where the two studs were at those points I added some long screws these are just barely peeking through the back surface so that I could get it mounted on the wall and and then drive them into the studs that I had marked once I had these fully in it was finally just time to wire it up this was really easy because at this point I just had two pairs of wires that I used wire nuts to connect to the main power source coming from the wall after I had all three wires Twisted together with the wire nut I wrapped each one of these connections with electrical tape just to secure them a little bit more I added in the final light bulbs and then tested it out it works and it was pretty easy to do the design is not really unique and that's okay because it was really just about updating what was there and if you're not into The Rustic look of this type of wood you can just use a 1x6 and paint it or stain it to get any look that you want this was really quick and easy to do and it didn't cost very much but a warning if you do electrical work make sure to follow your local codes look up some electrical stuff and get some knowledge because it can be really dangerous if you do it wrong I've got to go do a lot of other stuff to get our house ready to sell if you want to check out some other videos I've got several here and don't forget to subscribe that's it for this one guys thanks for watching I'll see you next time hey I'm Bob and I like to make stuff today I'm going to make a today I'm going to make a new bath hey I'm Bob and I like to make stuff today I'm going to make a new\n"