There are a lot of starburst mirrors out there, but here’s one that’s absolutely groovy, thanks to upcycled paint chips.

To make this mirror, I used 16 paint chips, 16 balsa wood strips that are about the same size as the paint chips, a 7″ mirror from the craft store, and an 8″ wooden disc from the craft store. For the paint chips, I actually buy color fan decks from eBay and then take them apart. It’s a lot easier to do this than going to the paint store in disguise and taking a bunch. Since I do a lot of arts and crafts with paint chips, I like to have a lot on hand, and I don’t feel right taking all those free ones from the store.

When I pulled the paint chips out of the color fan deck, they are longer than I want. Plus, they have a white part at the bottom with a hole where it was attached to the fan deck. So I trim off that white section. I also trim the palest color at the top of the paint chip because I don’t like the paint chip too long (otherwise you have a huge mirror). But it’s up to you. You’ll notice that the paint chips are thin and floppy, so I fortify them with wood strips. I bought large strips of balsa wood and used an X-acto knife to trim them so they were about the same size as the paint chips. I applied some Tacky Glue to one side of the balsa wood strips. I also used a foam brush to even the glue out so I had an even layer. Then I attached the balsa wood strip to the paint chip. Helpful hint: Then I let them dry while heavy books were stacked on top, so they would be nice and flat.

On the wood disk, I drew 16 spokes to correspond to where the 16 paint chips would go. I decided to attach the paint chips to the disk with both glue and screws so they would be super-secure. So I pre-drilled holes in the wood disk, about an inch from the edge. And I drilled holes in the paint chips, about a quarter inch from the edge of the paint chip.

Apply a couple of dabs of glue (I used E-6000) on the paint chip near the hole…

…lining up the holes, screw the paint chip to the wood disk.

Then screw in the other paint chips, going to every other spoke/pre-drilled hole. I skipped every other one because the mirror has two layers of paint chips: eight on the first layer, and eight on the second layer. The second layer overlaps the first.

Therefore, the second layer uses the holes that are in between the bottom row’s paint chips. Just like the first row, apply some dabs of glue to the back of the paint chips, line up the pre-drilled holes, and screw the paint chips to the wood disk.

Now all there is to do is apply the mirror. I squeezed some Liquid Nails adhesive to the back and then flipped the mirror over so it was facing out, pressing down to make sure the Liquid Nails made contact with the paint chips and the wood disk. Let it dry overnight. Screw a D-ring in the back to help you hang it. And you have the coolest mirror on the block.

For more detailed instructions, follow along to the video tutorial.