Affordable full length DIY bathroom mirror lights

Picture ledges shine as DIY bathroom mirror lights.

I wanted to use the spare power outlet above the bathroom mirror. Rather than buying a matching light, I wanted to create something that fits the style of the bathroom interior and really gives a lot of light.

So it had to be:
– wide (to emit enough light)
– wood (bamboo style)
– cheap (lights are expensive)

Searching around I found MÅLERÅS and got the idea to combine it with some LED strips to make a simple, yet fitting light source.

IKEA items used:

2x MÅLERÅS picture ledge

Other materials:

Epoxy resin
LED strips
24v power adapter

Tools:

DIY bathroom mirror lights:

This was my first epoxy project, so I’ve learned some things the hard way (LEVEL 1) – but it turned out to be the fun part of the project as well.

These are the steps I took:

1. Use a router to create a 1 cm wide, 3 mm deep dig along the front, make it wide enough for your LED strip.

2. Drill a small hole at the end of the rout to put the wires through later.

3. Cut the LED strip, solder wires for the connectors, glue the LED strip in place. The glueing is necessary to prevent the strip from flowing in the epoxy.

4. Seal the whole with hot glue, make sure it’s really sealed, otherwise the epoxy resin will leak.

5. Find a good spot for the lamps to pour the resin and let it cure. Make sure the boards are level! The whole thing is not very forgiving if it isn’t level and leave blank spots and over pour.

6. Mix some resin (60 ml was good for me), use a water bath to apply some heat and reduce bubbles. Pour it gently and with some breaks to let it spread. Remove bubbles within the first minutes by using a toothpick.

6.a. If you’re going for a “milky” look, you could add some white pigments to the resin before pouring.

7. Let it cure for 24h.

8. Assemble the back of MÅLERÅS in the opposite direction (instead of downfacing I placed it upfacing). This will give the light a cleaner look, since it will only be seen from below.

9. Screw it on the wall, attach the power adapter.

10. Let it shine

~ by Johannes

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