Bifolds – “Under the Sea” Theme

While struggling over how to make a cave (??!!) for my daughter’s “Under the Sea” themed bedroom makeover, I found another easy project to follow up the mermaid dresser I did last week. Her room needed a mirror, and I needed an excuse to take down the gazillion (approximately) pictures taped to her closet’s bifold doors. I also had a bunch of old shells that I’ve kept in a bowl for years, and I wanted to incorporate them into our design. Plus, I wanted to try a cute craft I’d done many times as a kid, and I had a feeling I’d need it for this project…

Step 1: Plan spacing of mirrors. Since 12 mirrors came in the pack that I’d purchased and I had 4 bifold door panels, that pretty clearly meant I had 3 mirrors for each door panel. Testing on a door, I held one square mirror (mine are 12×12) and moved it up and down to eyeball how the mirrors would look before committing to their placement. I decided that I wanted to cover the top portions of the bifold doors, hiding the decoratively indented portions. This would leave the bottoms of the doors with the knobs exposed and the lower sections still showing the decorative indentations.

I decided on 2-inch gaps between each mirror, running vertically. As far as centering the mirrors from the sides, I brought each mirror 1 inch in from the center/hinged side of the door panels. That meant I had a 2-inch gap again between the mirrors on each pair of door panels.

To mark where I would place the mirrors, I made lines at the 1-inch point in from the hinged side of the door. I made sure I had 2 inches between these marks, and then I held the mirrors level on these marks. Next, I traced the corners of each mirror as I held them in place.

Step 2: Attach the mirrors. The mirror pack I purchased came with plenty of little adhesive squares to put on each corner of each mirror. I found it worked best to put the squares directly on the door to be sure they’d be within my markings.

Because of my door’s indented sections, I cut a few of the adhesive squares a bit smaller where they wouldn’t connect with the indentations along the back of the mirror anyway. For the mirrors covering these indentations, I made sure to also place an adhesive square in the center where the mirror’s back would touch the door again.

Once I had the adhesive squares on the door, I lined up each mirror with my marked corners and pressed the mirrors gently so the adhesive stuck.

Before you start decorating around the mirrors, be sure to remove any film protecting the mirrors. You don’t want that to get stuck under the decorations!

Step 3: Add shells. You could put SO MANY different decorative things around your mirrors. Fake flowers would be pretty. Decorative rope would work. Different wood molding would look very nice too. Because of our theme, I went with shells.

First, I used my hot glue gun and attached as many shells as I could fit over the doors’ exposed indented areas. These were exposed in the 2-inch gap between my middle and lowest mirror.

Once I had those funky gaps filled and it looked good, I sighed in relief. Next, I did the easier, solid 2-inch gaps between the vertically spaced mirrors.

Gluing on the shells was very time-consuming, but it was kind of like a fun puzzle where I got to decide which shells looked best together.

However, I ran out of shells. 😜

Optional step: Sculpt shells. I didn’t want to buy even more shells, and I only needed enough for the tops of the mirrors, anyway. So, remembering a craft I often enjoyed as a kid, I asked my mom for the recipe she’d used whenever I wanted to sculpt little figurines or make beads.

Recipe: 1 cup cornstarch, 2 cups baking soda, and 1-1/4 cup cold water. Pouring all ingredients into a medium-sized pan, I stirred it up and cooked on medium heat until it looked like mashed potatoes. Then, I took it over to our counter and scooped it out onto some wax paper.

Once it had cooled enough to handle (it didn’t take long), my girls and I grabbed small globs at a time and sculpted our own shells. I started by rolling a clump into a little ball, next using my palm to flatted the ball. Then I squeezed together a little bit at the bottom to make the bottom of the shell. Taking a toothpick, I softly pressed it to make lines in the shell. Very easy!

We made a few starfish for variety, and a few of my rolled balls I flattened and used a toothpick to make sand dollars too.

When done, I carefully took our creations and placed them on a baking sheet. Heating the oven to 200 degrees, I baked the shells for a few hours until they were no longer damp to the touch. They might crack a tiny bit on the surface as they dry, but they’re still strong and hold together. You can air dry, but it takes much longer.

Keep it mind that the bigger and thicker you make your shells (or beads or flowers or whatever), the longer it takes for them to dry. We made a range of sizes, and the starfish in particular took a while to dry because they were about a half-inch thick.

Once dry and cool, the shells were ready for paint! We used a set of watercolors, and this makes pretty and soft colors on the shells – the watercolors soak in better than normal paint and look more natural without the color being overpowering.

These dried quickly, and within an hour these “shells” were glued onto the door just like the real thing!

That was it!

I considered putting shells all the way around the mirrors, but that might’ve been too much. I also wanted to avoid breaking any when the doors opened and closed against the doorframe on the sides, so leaving the sides empty saves me from that trouble.

Most importantly, the 5-year-old is happy! Now her doors have mirrors she can “check her makeup in,” and she can admire all her favorite shells, especially the ones she created herself. 😃

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