About 25 years ago I did an Art Deco stencil on the border of a large mirror in a home I was renting. It was a lovely 1911 Foursquare with many original touches downstairs. However, someone previously had "remuddled" the upstairs bath by painting over the original subway tile and installing horrible chrome shower doors over the clawfoot tub and putting in a "modern" wall to wall mirror above the "new and improved" vanity.

I made my own stencil after consulting some Deco design books and used spray adhesive to stick it to the mirror. The etching cream does take a little practice to get even on the surface, so practice on some glassware or a dollar store mirror first. I then used some black glass paint on portions of the etched glass and set it very carefully with a hair dryer. This was tricky, because I did crack a bathroom window that I tried this on first. The glass was cheap to replace, so no big loss, but it taught me to always keep the heat source moving and that it could be redone later if I used too harsh a scrubbing to clean the mirror.

Hmm. I think it might look a little weird if it's just a plain border, but if you did some sort of stencil, that might be nice. I'm picturing one pattern down the sides and a different (but coordinating) one on the top and bottom. And I might even make the side pattern wider than the pattern on the top and bottom just to give it some more visual interest. Like 3 inches on the sides and 1.5 on the top and bottom or something like that. (or if the mirror is taller than it is wide, put the wider pattern at the top and bottom). This sounds like a fun project.

To make your own pattern, you can create the pattern on paper, and then trace it onto contact paper. Then you put the contact paper on the glass, and use an exacto knife to cut out the pattern and just peel those pieces off. Good luck and post pics when you're done!

Someone just posted pictures of something similar. Search the forum for "frameless mirrors" and "dining room mirrors" and see what comes up.

We had one etched when updating our Powder with a 2" border. In our circumstance, it was to both coordinate with the vessel plus we wanted a tall and narrow one to create the illusion of height and cover the electrical box from the original over-the-sink light. This mirror measures 16 x 48 and was produced by our local glass shop.

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Here is a link that might be useful: Powder Room