No offense to the lovely folks that owned our humble abode before us, but the above picture shows how the entry wall was staged before we took ownership. 
The first thing we did was paint the living room and the entry wall is part of our living room. I knew I wanted to somehow incorporate a large, framed mirror on the wall so I taped out the approximate size I wanted on the wall with painters tape to help visualize.
We purchased a 3'X6' mirror from Texas Mirror and Doors and they delivered and installed the next day. To achieve the vertical mount, the installation specialist used an "L" bracket so that when we built the frame around the mirror we could place the frame directly next to the mirror.
We purchased four pieces of framing from Home Depot and borrowed my dear friend Kati's husband (and his power tools) for assistance in precision cutting. We used finishing nails and a nail punch to secure the frame around the mirror.
Brian always paints or installs the top half of whatever project we are attempting and I complete the bottom. Luckily, he's 6'3" and I don't mind sitting on the floor!
Above is what the mirror with its frame looked like before we caulked the corners. Since we cut the corners by hand, we needed to use calk to fill in the gaps.
Markley inspecting my work as I cleaned up some of the caulk.
Such a good little helper!
We taped the mirror and wall to paint the frame black. To be honest, I would have liked the frame to be wider, but we had to account for the outlet just outside the lower right corner of the frame. And the inspiration picture was for just that - inspiration.
Above is what the mirror looked like with our custom table in front of it. The base is an old sewing table that was in my Grandma's house and we had TM&D custom cut a piece of glass to be the table top.
The finished product - styled with two design books,
a bowl for keys and fresh flowers!
Now, scroll back up and look at my inspiration. Pretty close, right?!
