Mirrored Medicine Cabinet and Hollywood Vanity Light Makeover

If you have a mirrored medicine cabinet and/or Hollywood vanity light in need of a new look, this easy DIY makeover might do the trick.

Our tiny lake cottage has a super small bathroom and laundry room cleverly packed into the loft. Complete with a very slanted ceiling and an extra small footprint, it is actually one of the main reasons we purchased this cottage.

Most of the properties we looked at only had one bathroom, and if they had laundry machines at all, they were in weird places, like the crawl space.

So, even though some might not view this particular bathroom or laundry room as ideal, I love it!

I recently set out to give it a makeover (more on that soon), and one of the projects was refreshing this existing mirrored medicine cabinet and Hollywood-style vanity light.

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Why not replace them with a new mirror and new light?

Because I know you’re wondering why I didn’t just rip out this medicine cabinet and vanity light, I’ll tell you!

First, with such a small cottage, we need all the storage we can get. A medicine cabinet was a must-have in here.

Next, the slant of the ceiling makes it so that a regular-sized mirror and a separate vanity light would not fit. The mirror would be too short.

Finally, I like a challenge. I wanted to see what I could come up with.

So here we are.

Peel and stick mirror trim

The edges of this mirrored medicine cabinet were becoming discolored (getting those black or brown splotches along the bevel). That’s not a huge deal, as desilvering happens to mirrors all the time.

But I found this cool peel-and-stick trim for mirrors and decided to try it out here. It sort of reminded me of my mirror wall makeover, except there I used tape, which was totally flat. This mirror trim has more heft to it and looks more like trim.

It was easy to cut with scissors and press onto the face of the mirror, and it gave it an updated look right off the bat. I chose the matte gold finish, but it comes in other colors, too.

Hollywood light fixture makeover

The next part of this project was giving the dated vanity light a makeover. I had several ideas rolling around my brain, but none was going to work quite right. It took a lot of trial and error, but I eventually came up with this solution, which took into account a couple of important factors:

1. Any light embellishments did not interfere with the functionality of the medicine cabinet or hit the sloped ceiling, and
2. The light bulbs could still be incandescent (this fixture would not accept LED lights. Trust me, I tried). Incandescent bulbs are hot, whereas LED are not, so I had to be cautious about heat and starting a fire.

I found glass candle wax catchers (the fancy name for them is “bobeche”) and decided they were exactly what I needed.

I applied Rub n Buff in the shade Gold Leaf around the edges and backs of the bobeches, and super-glued them to the part of the fixture where the light bulbs screw in (which I also applied Rub n Buff to on the outside only).

With new, clear incandescent bulbs, the Hollywood vanity light looked less 1980’s Glamour Shots chic and more, well, cute.

In the end, would I rather have a new mirror and vanity light? Probably. But I’m glad to have come up with a creative solution to work with what I already have. I’d so much rather save the cash!

I’d love to hear what you think about this makeover, so please leave me a comment, share this on Pinterest, or find me on social media @averagebutinspired.