6 Step Tutorial to Decoupage a Mirror Frame with Napkins

Are you an upcycle lover? I am! I love the freedom and creativity that upcycling offers without having to think of something to make from scratch. It also provides the opportunity to make something that is truly yours and expresses your personality and style

This is especially true for home decor and furniture pieces. I am so tired of the magnolia and the grey, let’s bring some colour into our lives. The Treasuri not only aims to bring these products to your home but also encourages you to try new things and make them yourself too. Check out our other mirror tutorials on The Treasuri blog today.

Anyway, let’s get back to the task at hand, decoupaging a mirror frame with napkins.

I fell in love with this bright pink, lemon print on these napkins and was just waiting for something I could decoupage them on. I chose a small square wood mirror, even though the napkins weren’t as wide as the mirror, patching up the seam would be easy.

The technique used in the following tutorial can be applied to almost anything. Upcycling a vase, a piece of furniture, a cookie jar… whatever you fancy is easy with a bit of mod podge, patience, and creativity.

How to Decoupage a Mirror with Napkins

Supplies you need:

• Mirror with a frame
• Napkins of choice
• Mod podge gloss
• Paint brush
• Scissors and craft knife
• Optional: white paint

Step 1: Prep Your Mirror for Decoupage

I’d recommend choosing a mirror that you can easily remove from the frame. Removing the mirror glass allows you to achieve a crisp inner edge and avoid getting anything stuck to the glass. From personal experience, removing the mirror also allows you to add the napkin to where the mirror rests (often the mirror will reflect this inner edge making the frame look incomplete).

Painting the mirror frame white at this stage is probably recommended. If I completed this project again, I’d definitely decide to paint a base white colour to improve the finish. Simply painting with a white gesso or furniture paint, which is good for wood, is fine. Ensuring the paint is fully dry before applying the decoupage. If you also find brush strokes in the paint, sand down and dust for the next steps.

Step 2: Cut and Place Your Napkins

Before diving straight in and decoupaging your napkins, you want to place them on the frame and remove any parts necessary.

I decided to place the decided napkins straight along the frame to minimise wastage. However, this did mean there would be an obvious seam down the middle which I cover later on. I also decided to trim the corners in the same way that the mirror corners are at an angle.

Cutting the angle all the way along the napkin can leave a small part of the inside frame missing the print. Therefore, cut the angle and finish with a straight edge (as you can see from the images below) to finish the frame off correctly.

Step 3: Apply Mod Podge and Napkins

Mod Podge will be your best friend when decoupaging anything. It’s my favourite product ever!

First brush mod podge on the main part of the mirror frame. Mod podge dries quickly so apply in sections rather than all over the mirror. Start to apply your napkin from one end and slow smooth down with your other hand

Use cling film over your decoupage layer to smooth the paper out with your hands. nce you’ve applied the bulk of each napkin, get your mod podge into the inner and outer edges and smooth from top to bottom to avoid any crinkles. Allow to fully dry.

If you painted your frame white before decoupaging, remove the back layers from your napkins so that you have only the printed sheet. This results in an easier to apply decoupage paper that can be smoothed. I’d recommend doing this after cutting your pieces because they’re so thin and fiddly.

As I didn’t paint my frame, I kept all the layers of napkins together so the base layers acted as a white base. The white base white is key to letting the colours pop, especially when its thin tissue.

Step 4: Patchup Any Seams in the Decoupage

As I mentioned earlier, my napkins would have seams in the middle of the frame. To cover this, I cut out lemons and leaves from my offcuts and decoupaged them on top of the seam.

I really liked the way layering disguised the seam. However, I over-saturated these pieces with mod podge and they dried see-through so the end result wasn’t as good as it could have been.

You can also apply another coat of mod podge to seal your mirror frame decoupage. As I hadn’t painted the mirror frame white I decided to leave this final coat of mirror frame so the print stayed bright.

Step 5: Trim excess

Once dried, you’re able to trim the excess napkin from the inner and outside edges of the mirror frame.

Flip the mirror over so you’re looking at the back of the frame. Turn in the excess from the centre edge and cut using your craft knife inside the frame. Resulting in a sort of wrap around the inner edge of the mirror frame, so that the mirror reflects the print when placed back in and not wood.

On the outer edge, use your craft knife to cut as close to the edge as possible without ripping the decoupage. If needed, apply more mod podge to fully secure the edges so they won’t start peeling later down the line.

Step 6: Place Mirror Back in Decoupaged Frame

Once you’re happy with the finish on your mirror frame, clean the mirror glass and replace it back into the frame. Finishing off this quick and easy tutorial on how to decoupage a mirror!

Don’t forget to pin this upcycling tutorial for later!