FURNITURE APPLIQUES trumeau mirror ~ Magazine wood working

Sunday, February 23, 2014

I finally made over my very own Trumeau mirror.

It has been stashed in my work room moving from place to place for years.

Trumeau mirrors are French wall mirrors originally manufactured in the 18th century.

The French word trumeau describes the space between windows.

Trumeau mirrors were originally intended to hang on a wall between windows,

providing a decorative element and to bring more light to the room.

The mirror is almost always rectangular and sometimes includes a decorative portion at the top,

with the mirror below it. A genuine antique trumeau can cost between US$2000 and US$20,000.

My trumeau is probably from the 1950s and was fairly flat with the perfect area to add a great applique.

What I needed was the right motivation and that came when I found the right applique.

The applique I used on my mirror is a reproduction that I bought from a storage unit sale.

Here is my Trumeau mirror in all her glory and Im in love!

Another idea for appliques is these plastic decorative pieces that you find at thrift store.

With a jigsaw and some caution you can cut them apart into fancy applique pieces.

Please be careful!!

**NOTE**

When you are cutting plastic with an electric reciprocating blade,

the plastic melts from the friction and can fuse back together as you pass through it.

If you are not comfortable with a jigsaw try checking out small hacksaws or rodsaws

at your local hardware store. Both these options are manual hand tools.

While you are there pick up some new blades for your knife,

cause you need to trim the rough edges. This kind of plastic can not be cut with a knife.

Only use it to shave the rough edges!

Some rough sandpaper (80 grit) can also help to smooth the edges.

These are light enough to glue to a project but small nails could be used with pre-drilled holes.

DO NOT try to drive a nail through the plastic without drilling first. They will break!

Here is how 2 of these pieces were used.