Ikea Malma mirrors:
Meg:
I just bought 12 of these mirrors for my entryway. I already have a mirror in my entryway but it just doesn't look finished.
In addition, when the front door is opened, it hits one of the sconces and keeps marring the freshly painted door. So I bought these iron scroll-y things for $3 each on clearance at Target. Blech.
I thought that adding a frame around the mirror would snaz it up. Until I put this ginormous 6 foot thing in my living room.
It's only a few feet away from the entryway. I think two big mirrors make me look a little vain. But in all honesty, it's a decor trick to bounce some light in this dark area. $36 is a lot cheaper than a new front door with some glass inserts. (That will come. Just not in the budget right now.)
But sadly, these Malma mirrors have been sitting on the floor for 3 weeks now because I couldn't figure out how to hang them. Like in traditional Ikea style, there weren't any instructions. (I would have even settled for their picture-only instructions.) Google wasn't helping except to reassure me that I'm not the only one in this quandary.
There were two small hooks and a short piece of string included. Huh? I finally realized you need to screw the hooks into the back and run the string through the hooks a few times. But if I screwed them into the back, the mirror won't lay flush on the wall. Now, I love me a tilted mirror ( a common restaurant decor trick.) But it wouldn't look right with two rows of tilted mirrors.
On top of that, I'd have to screw in 24 of these hooks. (Did I mention I'm lazy?) There were no pre-drilled holes. I'm not that ambitious. But necessity (or laziness) is the mother of invention. I found these 3M picture hanging strips from their Command Adhesive line.
What do you think?
I may add some hooks for coats underneath the mirrors at a later time. Not necessarily for my coats (because it's visual clutter to me and my OCD tendencies). But while I have 2(!) hall closets across from these mirrors, they are currently serving as storage. Not something I'd want my guests to see.
15 comments:
I'm pretty sure that final picture proves yourself! Love it!
I.LOVE.IT!! I have 3 of those in my office but they're tilted b/c I used the hooks they came with. I love your solution so much better!
oh love it!
I just bought 4 of these and was all excited to put them up...until I really thought about the two screws and string and it wasn't quite working in my head. One question: Will the adhesives ruin the paint on the wall? I'm renting...
Anna, nope the adhesive is wall and paint friendly. You just have to follow the removal instructions on the box. (It's easy.) I've pulled them off plenty of timex before and never had a problem.
I was going to recommend velcro, but the adhesive is even better, I think. I do have a lot of stuff up with velcro and it does easily allow fine tuning of the position, but the adhesive leaves a mark for the goof off later.
I have loved the mirror idea for light myself. In our apt. kitchen the sink faces the wall and one's back faces the windows (that look out through the ginkoes at the historic buildings accross the street. It's very pretty, but no fun if you can't see it.
Soooo, we put a mirror up above the sink. It makes the room look bigger, lets one see out into the trees while working, creates visual interest, and tosses a ton of light into the work area.
We'll be doing the same thing in the new kitchen (which is coming along now)
Mark
Found this through Google. Thanks for the adhesive tip because I had no idea how I was going to attach the hooks and strings and such to these mirrors.
I adhered mine similarly...at 4 in the morning 3 of my 10 mirrors fell off, surprisingly they didn't break. not surprisingly, the crashing scared the ikea out of me.
lol, Fufa! I had a very lightweight object fall off of the bedroom wall one night (attached poorly by a nail)and it hit me in the head. Scared me to death!
So far, no problems with the mirrors remaining attached. I've discovered that it is really important to follow the directions carefully. (Pressing firmly and something about having the strip on the wall for an hour before attaching the object.
I didn't follow the hour rule on some pictures I hung in my hallway and one had dropped a year or two later. For the remaining picture frames, I pressed hard on the strip again and haven't had any more fall.
I spent a half hour trying to figure out those mirrors (I of course, did not). It appears that the mirror was smarter than me. Great idea, using the 3M post its! :) Running to Target in a bit...
Hi Meg! I bought 12 malma mirrors from IKEA yesterday and wondered how the heck I was going to hang them- there was no way I was going to screw 24 of those hooks into the back of the frames, plus, I wanted them to look flush on the wall and not tilted. Great idea with using the Command picture adhesive! That's going to be my project tonight. Thanks for sharing!
This thread is hysterical. Thanks so much for sharing how you put these up. My wife and I have been staring at these mirrors sitting on our floor for months. I am definitely going to try the adhesive!
This makes much more sense than what I did (Buying nails and nailing them into the walls) cause you can see the nails and it doesn't look nice - this adhesive trick is beatuy and the finished product looks awesome!
I know this post is 3 years old but you have no idea how many blogs I have looked at for an answer..THANK YOU so much! I too have been staring at the 12 I purchased from Ikea 4 weeks ago for my 17 year old son's room & wanted it to look more like a "Den" (so I can have a feel of what my Den will be like when he finally leaves and stays on campus! He has no idea..lol Thank you!
You're welcome! :) Mine are mostly still attached three years later. lol I repainted and did not follow the instructions for pressing for x seconds and waiting x hours before hanging back up. I had a couple fall off that way (didn't break though!) so make sure to follow the instructions! :)
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