Repairing the Hutch in the dining room is like many projects in our old house. It is on the list, but not urgent. The structural and mechanical work, such as replacing leaky roofs and pipes and repairing crumbling foundations and electrical systems, usually get priority.

The hutch needs some drawers repaired but most visibly, the original mirror has lost most of its silvering and looks seriously shabby. We have discussed possibly re-silvering the heritage glass or replacing it with something contemporary, but no decision had been reached as this was something to be tackled next year.

But walking by the mirror daily finally maxed out Carrie’s annoyance quotient and she decided something needed to be done now. She determined a good temporary solution would be to remove but keep the old mirror and install an inexpensive replacement.

This photo shows Carrie reflected in the old mirror as she removes the molding that held it in place.


The old mirror is about four feet wide and a foot and a half high. We couldn’t find a cheap replacement mirror that big, so taking advantage of her stained glass experience Carrie cut two smaller mirrors and assembled them to fit. We designed a pattern for the seams of the mirror pieces that compliments the look of the windowed doors of the hutch.

Here is the “after” shot showing our Candelabra Christmas Tree shining in the new mirror. Look closely and you can see the Mission style horizontal and vertical lines created by the solder seams.