A small, frameless mirror: a buck. A large, mirrored wall hanging: fifty bucks – or more. When you purchase large decorator items you’ll see that the price is really extravagant. But when you take a small mirror, and make it look much bigger, you create a substantial wall hanging for a fraction of the price. It’s easy to do when you use chopsticks. If you have several sets of chopsticks lying around gather them and make a wall mirror that you’ll love.
Although it’s not absolutely required that you paint the chopsticks you’ll create a much more elegant-looking piece if you do. Paint them to coordinate with colors in the room or go for a metallic look, like gold or silver. If you have no spray paint the chopsticks can even be colored with a marker or nail polish.
Craft stores feature a nice selection of small, frameless mirrors in shapes like circles, squares, ovals, and others. The mirrors come in a small assortment of sizes and cost from a buck to several dollars. Any one of these mirrors is perfect for helping you create a lovely chopstick mirror.
Lay the chosen mirror on a piece of cardboard and draw around it. Cut out the cardboard shape. Apply industrial-strength glue, like E-6000, to the cardboard. Begin arranging the chopsticks into a circle shape, placing the wide ends of the chopsticks on the cardboard, and arranging the large ends in a small circle on the cardboard. Or, create a slightly different look by gluing the small ends to the cardboard.
Apply the adhesive to the small mirror and stick it to the top of the chopstick arrangement, right in the center. Place a heavy item, like a book, on the mirror to weight it as the glue dries. After the glue has set the wall hanging is finished. Simply attach a peel-n-stick picture hanger to the backside of the lightweight mirror arrangement and hang it on the wall.
If you want to take the project a step further you can attach things to the pointed ends of the chopsticks to create a totally different look. One such thing is painted Styrofoam balls. If you paint the chopsticks gold, and add gold-glittered balls, you create a gorgeous wall accent that shimmers. But if you paint the chopsticks pink, and add pink pom-poms to the ends, the wall hanging is posh and pretty.
Try making your own chopstick mirror using the colors and embellishments you want. You’ll create a one-of-a-kind arrangement and it will look fabulous in a bedroom, living room, or even a bathroom. Whether you make a simplistic chopstick mirror, or a more detailed version, the wall hanging will take little time to craft.
Chopstick Mirrror