DIY Decor: Enchanted Forest Mirror

Popping in with a quick post documenting my newly styled OOTD corner!

It was a plain IKEA mirror pretty much forever, but I decided to make it more fun by adding some greenery and whimsical touches for an enchanted forest sort of aesthetic. It was pretty straightforward to put together, and I spent most of the time comparing options for the supplies on Amazon. I would have preferred to have just gone to Michaels or Joanns and just grabbed whatever looks reasonable there because 1) seeing it in person is always better and 2) less choice paralysis, but alas I just couldn't justify to myself spending two hours at a craft store for a purely nonessential purpose.

No one's gonna think this is a prop that came out of ILM, but I love how it turned out! The greenery and whimsical touch definitely makes the room feel more personalized. I end up cropping most of it out of my outfit photos, but the occasional glimpse of a fern or butterfly in the collage is a fun touch.

What I Used

You should be able to find similar greenery anywhere that has a decent selection of craft florals. It doesn't have to be exactly these, and depending on the style and dimensions of your mirror or your personal botanical preferences, customizing is encouraged!

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IKEA Karmsund Mirror – Just your basic floor mirror. This one conveniently has some ornamental metalwork at the top that was helpful for anchoring the branches.

Thicker, bendable branchy vine – To anchor everything with a sturdier piece for a more old-growth look as well as break up a bit of the greens, I wanted at least one branchier/woodier item. I got a set of vines meant to go in a reptile terrarium, so they're more naturalistic in style and (supposedly) washable.

Thinner ivy vines – These faux ivy pieces, particularly in conjunction with fairy lights, are all over Pinterest/Urban Outfiters/probably TikTok. For good reason! It's an easy way to bring in a bit of whimsy and nature into a space, but these by themselves do give me more of a dorm room vibe as they're pretty minimal. I wanted more of a movie set piece look so I wanted to mix them with different types of plants. The ones I got are serviceable for my purpose although if you want a realistic look these are not it. The branchy vines I got actually came in a set with artificial ivy leaves, so this is the same item linked above.

Cascading faux ferns – I got one modeled after a Boston fern, so it's quite dense with different scales of fronds and curlicue ends. It's a cascading floral pick sort of item, with a bendy stem that I shaped into a hook. Note that the stock photo in the linked item seems to show two pairs in the main photo. The individual picks aren't that thick. (You can see me holding one of the bunches in the photo of the mirror with the thicker vines above)

Magnetic butterflies – I looked for faux butterflies with a realistic look and lightweight, poseable wings. These are also magnetic, which was AWESOME because I didn't have to use any adhesive. I like how the wings flutter a bit if there's a fan going, although they're too translucent to feel extremely realistic. I wish I'd kept looking for a set that had different sizes of butterfly for more depth, but I'm happy with these overall.

Toy caterpillars – just to bring in a bit of "ick" factor. I also considered spiders, but I decided that I'd rather go with a bug that I won't have to play "wait, did I put that there or did it come in from outside" with like realistic spiders. I actually think these are pretty cute. Again, definitely a mass produced cheap toy level paint job, but I like that these have slightly different poses.

Stuffed owl (From Deprecat crochet pattern) – Similarly to having three levels of shape/thickness of greenery, I felt that having a focal point critter would help with the rhythm of the whole piece. I have a lot of crocheted stuffed items and felt decor around, so this one was alright but I can see a less handcrafted looking plush or a more realistic faux item working better in other homes. I think if I didn't have the owl already I might have gone for a rubber snake.

Inspiration and Considerations

I had two main practical considerations: 1) I kept a lookout for items that looked more bendy so they could be shaped. 2) I went for greenery that I could bulk wash with dish soap water in the kitchen sink or tub with the rest of my fake plants. So no crumbly dried moss and no raw hem fabric flowers.

There's apparently a "moss mirror" trend on TikTok Iwhich I still don't use) that's leaked a bit into Pinterest, and while I do find that the addition of moss creates a much more earthy and overgrown feel compared to just vines, I decided it wasn't worth dealing with dusting any of that in the long term. I do have some plastic spanish moss decorating other areas of the apartment, but I felt that between the ferns and the ivy this already had enough going on. I'm also not sure that English Ivy and Spanish Moss can grow together in the wild, and I wanted to keep some sense of realism.

Otherwise, before styling it, I made a Pinterest board (embedded below) of wild and vaguely magical looking greenery in more concentrated areas. I didn't find anything that made sense to copy directly, but I found it helpful to have more references on what an arrangement with depth would look like.

If you don't have a floor mirror, I think this sort of decor would also be just adorable on a smaller scale with a desktop/vanity mirror, or maybe above a bathroom mirror (with the latter, I'd definitely suggest going with all-washable components).

https://www.pinterest.com/ter4gr4m/greenery-decor/

This has fed in very nicely with my obsession with adding more greenery to the apartment. I'm running out of surfaces that I can reasonably cover, so I think my next decor projects are going to be mostly fine-tuning seasonal Halloween sets. I've probably spent a similar amount of time the past few months on apartment organization and decor, so I'm looking forward to sharing more of what I've been doing on that front on the blog.