It's tough being broke with expensive tastes. As someone who values luxury on a low budget, I've learned to look high and low for fancy furniture that suits my tastes, and I've scored some extremely lucky, one-in-a-million finds that way (thank you, Facebook Marketplace). At the end of the day, though, sometimes there's just no getting that one special piece you want without paying its exorbitant full retail price.
Unless, of course, you're insanely good at furniture duping.
Take thrifty decor and DIY pro Annika Hinds. Annika had this one beautiful arch mirror she'd been eyeing, but she wasn't willing to drop $3,500 on it- shocker, I know. Against all odds, she instead managed to make a pretty convincing recreation of it for only $80, using some very unconventional yet surprisingly simple craft supplies!
Pool noodles ? You know, those cheap foam tubes you can pick up at Walmart for a couple bucks each? Yeah... turns out, they can be pretty useful when you want to recreate a $3,500 arch mirror for less than $100 bucks. Annika (aka @blondesigns ) flexed a few of her other DIY dupes she made with pool noodles, but that mirror was the one that impressed me the most. How did she do it?
Well thankfully, Annika didn't keep that secret to herself. She had previously posted a two-part video tutorial series for this pool noodle mirror, a challenging yet rewarding project that all started with a free mirror her neighbor was throwing away.
Her high-end inspiration was this Iris Floor Mirror from Merve Kahraman, which had a pink and yellow upholstered frame. After scoring the big free mirror from her neighbor, Annika realized she could recreate the mirror's plush upholstered edges with just some pool noodles and some fabric. Annika grabbed some plywood and a few Dollar Tree pool noodles, and kicked her DIY duping project into high gear.
As you can see, the project got off to a rocky start. This was Annika's first foray into glass cutting, a risky and unforgiving venture. She traced her arch, started the cut - and immediately broke the mirror. Annika was able to keep that from happening a second time by tapping underneath while she cut, but there was no fixing the break she'd already made - she'd just have to hope that the frame would cover it up. Judging by the finished project, I'd say her gamble paid off!
After recovering from the mirror snafu, she cut out a plywood arch, glued the mirror on top, and let it cure while she cut her pool noodles down to size and gathered her fabrics. She stapled the base pink fabric across the back, folded her noodle "frame" into the excess fabric, and stapled that in place, repeating the process against with the yellow-upholsted outer frame. After finishing off with some extra fabric and a clean, flexible trim, her low-budget luxury dupe was complete!
Recreating the Pool Noodle Mirror
While Annika said the dupe cost her about $80, she didn't give an itemized cost breakdown. Considering that her mirror was free and pool noodles are dirt cheap, her biggest expenses must have been the plywood and the fabrics.
Unfortunately, DIYers will have to pick up their own mirror to recreate Annika's dupe (unless they also have large free mirrors they're willing to sacrifice). The original Merve Kahraman mirror measured 63" by 23.5," and a cheap mirror about that size will most likely run you at least $50, depending on where you get it.
Still, even if you were to pay $100 more than Annika did for the same results, that's still a twentieth of what the original product would have cost after shipping. Besides, if your only other main DIY supplies are plywood, thrifted fabrics, and pool noodles, I think it's fair to splurge on some good glass!
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