Trash Talk Tuesdays Tutorial ~ Mirror, Mirror On The (Apartment) Wall

Tuesdays are my favorite day to go junkin' at thrift stores. Usually by Tuesday, the weekend clean out or garage sale leftovers have been donated, priced & placed on the shelves for prime pickin'. As time allows, I'll blog about what I've found & how I've re-purposed/recycled/reused/restored my treasures on Tuesdays.
For the next couple of weeks I'll share some cheap & easy apartment/rental decor ideas, for those who can't (or don't want to) commit to permanent changes in their present environment...

Mirror, Mirror On the (Apartment) Wall
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While renting a dwelling might limit the scope of renovation projects, there are innovative ways to temporarily modify your environment. One common dilemma is decorating around wall-to-wall bathroom mirrors.

By hanging a simple curtain rod and tea stained muslin curtains, a powder room can instantly take on a more cozy vibe. I found these lightweight cotton tab curtains at Goodwill for $2.00 (new old stock, still in the original package!) Wanting a primitive look, I soaked them in a dishpan using store brand unsweetened iced tea for about an hour, wrung them out & hung them out to dry in the shower. You can skip that step if primitive isn't your style.

On each side of the wall to wall mirror, there was a sliver of sheet rocked wall space big enough to drill holes for hanging metal rod brackets. An extension rod or shower curtain rod would also work, or even heavy gauge wire attached to wall or ceiling hooks would do the trick.

Using fabric scissors, I cut the curtain tabs at the tops to tie each tab along the rod with a half knot, then cut along the curtain bottoms allowing some room to tuck the ends under. The metal rod (another Goodwill find for $1.09) was sturdy enough to hang a tin lantern on an 'S' hook ~ creating the illusion of a window.