Mirrored Wardrobe Doors

oakfield · 15 Apr 2013

I need to make a pair of mirrored wardrobe doors.

They are approximatly 500mm wide and 1900mm tall so not huge.
I was planning on getting the 4mm mirror cut and edges polished and sticking it on to some 18mm MR MDF the same size with mirror adhesive supplied byy the glazier.

I'm not sure whether i should paint both sides of the mdf, or just the uncovered side or none or it.

Does anyone have any useful advise.

Thanks,
Mark.

Turnman · 15 Apr 2013

I would be inclined to seal both sides of the MDF very thoroughly, and then paint the reverse side and the edges in the desired colour. The mirror should be safety backed thereby isolating the silvering from the damaging effects of ordinary silicone sealant, but it is still advisable to use the correct adhesive, and it will probably not stick very well to raw MDF.

Peter

Eric The Viking · 16 Apr 2013

I've done several, but they've been smaller.

Seal the MDF. I used PVA, two good coats. I also got the glazier to fix them on. That way I have some comeback, and they have more experience anyway (one of our local firms is a mirror specialist). I routed panels out of the MDF to reduce the weight, leaving a "frame" of around 6" all round to glue to, and some wide bars across the middle. Two of the doors are melamine faced MDF, they glued as well as the plain one.

They will end up very heavy and fragile until fitted, so bear that in mind, get grippy gloves and more hands. The glazier can tell you how much the glass will weigh, so you can work out the total weight of the door. You might need extra hinges if they're the Blum type.

Hope that helps,

E.

petermillard · 16 Apr 2013

When I do these I tend to make the doors and get them fitted and fettled, then hand them over to the glazier to fit the mirror - seems like a fair division of labour, and I get all the drilling etc... out of the way beforehand.

4mm glass is roughly 10Kg/sq metre, and proper mirror fix adhesive sticks very well to anything, IME. Agree with what ETV says, reduce the weight of the backer, though a 6mm back +12mm strips around the edges and across the centre is an alternative to routing chunks out of 18mm...

HTH Pete

Eric The Viking · 16 Apr 2013

Completely agree with Pete.

I should add that a friend went down the frame and panel route, to match the other doors in the set. Very big sliding doors though - about 1.2m across, of which about 1m was mirror, almost floor to ceiling. He let a specialist firm make them up, and because they had a well-finished substrate they thought DS tape was OK. It wasn't, and the mirrors came off. They didn't break, and were reattached with mirror glue, although they were a real pain to hang because of the weight and fragility combined.

Obviously those were too big to cut from solid MDF, but make allowance for flexing- if the door is too flimsy, the glass can crack even if it doesn't come off. My parents have large sliding mirrored wardrobe doors that are frame plus panel, but the mirror is the panel, and the frames are an aluminium extrusion.

E.