Panel made of mirror and shells. Crafts from seashells - DIY mirror decor. For this we use

Every summer many people go to the sea. But the vacation flies by instantly, after which only memories remain. The seashells you bring with you can remind you of the gentle beach.

Often these seafood products remain in the cupboard without bringing any benefit. But you can make your own decor not only from cardboard or other material, but also from shells.

How to use shells to decorate your apartment and crafts?

To personalize the interior of a room, you can use a variety of decorations that are easy to make yourself.

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From materials such as shells, you can create unique photo frames, vases, boxes, etc. Such decorated items will remind you of a wonderful vacation, while creating beautiful decorations.

DIY shell decor ideas

Seashells will look especially appropriate in the bathroom, but they can be added to any corner of the apartment. They can be used to decorate a box or vases that will look good and complement the interior.

This decorated item is also used as a gift. In addition, those who have an aquarium use shells as decoration.

How to decorate a regular mirror with shells: decorating instructions

A simple mirror is ideal for decorating with shells. Acrylic paints are also used for this. It is better to choose tones that will resemble the sea and sand, which you can use to paint waves or a piece of the coast. And shells can complement such an exquisite mirror. They are glued with glue. The main thing is to choose an adhesive material that can withstand steam if the decoration takes place in the bathroom.

But the shells will look beautiful in another room too. Best used in the bedroom or living room pastel shades when painting a mirror.

Decorating photo frames with shells in a marine style

Shell decor can even be done on a photo frame. At the same time, this will be easy to do. To do this, just use your imagination, choose a suitable decorated material, and then glue it to the frame. The end result will be a nautical-style frame like the one in the photo below.

DIY shell decor, photo frame design

Such creativity can be supplemented by:

glitter
beads
rhinestones

But you can put such a frame in any corner of the house: from the shelf to the fireplace. In addition, you can make a whole picture out of shells.

Decorate a transparent vase with shells and get a stylish accessory

You can decorate a clear glass vase with shells. To do this, just pour the seafood into a container. This vase is placed on bedside tables, small tables, and shelves.

A slightly different option is also offered. Before filling the container with shells, you need to pour sand into it. This combination will look harmonious, and a starfish can complement it.

DIY shell decor, vase decoration

We decorate pots for home flowers with shell rock

Housewives often decorate their indoor flowers with pebbles. But shells can replace them. To do this, just lay them on the soil around the plant. But, in addition, you can stick shells on the pot itself.

Thus, it will be transformed, become original, attractive. Guests who come to the house will not be able to help but notice such beauty.

Decorating pots for home flowers with shells

We decorate the yard, garden or cottage with seafood

They are simply laid out near plants, bushes, and fountains in the yard. They can make a great addition to your pool.

So, don't hide shells in closets or sideboards. They can be used to decorate various items in the house in an original way. Even an ordinary soap dish, complemented with shells, can transform a bathroom.

You can also decorate balconies and pendants. You need to use your imagination, and then create original decorated objects.

Hello, dear readers! I really want to extend my summer vacation at sea, don’t I? But work and other obligations cannot be delayed; at least the memories of a wonderful seaside holiday are warm in the soul! But such memories can be extended, not by looking at colorful vacation photos, but by making a mirror frame with your own hands, decorated in a nautical style. Just imagine how wonderful it will look in the interior of a bathroom or hallway, constantly feeding you with pleasant memories of the warm sea!

Mirror with shells photo

Mirror with shells photo

If you brought shells from the sea, then literally after a few days you may notice that they have darkened and a terribly unpleasant smell has appeared. Below you will learn how to bring the shells into proper shape.

How to clean seashells at home.

Freeze the shells. Some people recommend freezing the shells in a bag filled with water, I know from experience that no water is required, place the shells in a bag, tie it and place it in freezer. After a while, when you can deal with the shells, take out the bag, wait until the shells defrost (do not untie the bag during defrosting - otherwise you will smell a pungent odor). After defrosting, tie a cotton-gauze bandage on your face, put gloves on your hands, arm yourself with tweezers, a knife, and a sharp wooden skewer and remove the insides of the shells.
Boil the shells. There is another way to clean shells: pour water into a saucepan, carefully immerse the shells in it, and boil the shells in boiling water for about 15 minutes. Then drain the water, let the shells cool, use tweezers and remove all the insides from them. At the final stage, rinse all sinks thoroughly with running water.
How to bleach shells. Take glass containers, immerse the shells in it and fill it with laundry bleach. After 1.5 hours, you can take out the shells; if necessary, you can hold them longer. Rinse the sinks under running water, dry, lubricate vegetable oil and after a while, cover with colorless varnish. When drying in the sun, try not to overexpose the shells, otherwise they will crumble.

How to decorate a mirror with shells.

✓ Required materials:

✓ Mirror in frame;

✓ Hot glue gun with glue sticks (you can use transparent instant glue);

✓ Shells, pearl beads and river pebbles;

✓ Colorless varnish;

✓ Tweezers.

Where can I get shells?

Gather on the seashore;

Purchase in coastal shops (usually these departments sell shells of all shapes and sizes at affordable prices);

Purchase in souvenir shops in your city;

Order in the online store;

Purchase in “Everything for Creativity” stores;

Ask friends and relatives.

Well, let's start decorating the mirror with shells.

We place the mirror on the table, heat up the heat gun or simply arm ourselves with a bottle of transparent instant glue. We cover the mirror canvas with cloth or paper so as not to drip glue or scratch it.

We glue small shells along the inner contour of the mirror; it is better to apply glue to the shell itself. Of course, when applying glue to the frame, things will go faster, but since the moment tends to harden quickly, you may simply not have time to glue the seafood. Make sure that they are located symmetrically and do not jump out of the intended row.

After creating the shell outline, you can start gluing large shells, but before gluing, just apply the shell to the frame and evaluate whether it looks appropriate here.

After gluing the large shells, start filling in the gaps between them using pearl beads, river pebbles and small shells. If you plan to stick on starfish, remember that they are very fragile and need to be glued on first, and then other decorations should be placed around them. The gaps can also be filled with clean sea sand or light beads can be used.

When a marine-style mirror is completely decorated with all kinds of seafood, leave the product to dry completely; 24 hours will be enough. Then we coat the frame with a glossy, colorless varnish, and after drying again, we admire the result!

Mirror with shells photo

Mirror in a marine style photo.

I suggest you look at a selection of photos of square mirrors, complemented by shells.

Such mirrors will highlight the interior design of the bathroom, hallway and bedroom. And how perfectly they will fit into the thematic marine interior!

Mirror in marine style photo

Round mirrors decorated with different-sized shells.

Such mirrors look very neat and quite compact, so they can be hung in any room of the house; in addition, such a mirror is perfect as a gift!

Oval mirrors decorated with shells and other seafood.

Such mirrors look truly cozy, they will instantly help to enliven the overall interior atmosphere. Just one mirror can dramatically change the entire home environment; thanks to its bright decor, it will become the main accessory in the house and will constantly attract attention.

Rectangular mirrors decorated with large and small shells.

This form of mirror is perhaps the most traditional and in demand. A large mirror decorated with shells of various shapes can be hung on central location in the living room or dining room.

Mirror in marine style photo

A summer vacation on the sea coast promises souvenirs to remember the wonderful hot days. There are many ways to use them at home. There are many options for using shells as decorations. You can decorate any room with your own hands and, if available, interesting ideas create a beautiful decor from shells.

Caring for seashells

If there are many available sea shells, then at home without proper care they will quickly begin to darken. The worst thing is the smell that appears in this process. To extend the life of these souvenirs, you need to follow the step-by-step instructions.

Start caring for such a souvenir by freezing the product itself. Collect the shells in a bag and seal it, then place in the freezer indefinitely. When you can handle the shellfish, defrost them. Do not open the package immediately, otherwise you will smell the foul odor of rotten shellfish. It will spread very quickly throughout the room and does not evaporate well. Cover your mouth and nose with a cotton-gauze bandage, put on gloves and remove the insides of the shells using tweezers and a knife.

Cover the clams with water and boil for 15 minutes. Drain the water and after cooling completely, carefully remove the internal contents with tweezers. Place your sinks under running water. Then they will be completely cleansed.

The next stage is bleaching. Prepare a glass container, stack your sinks and fill them with some bleach. In this state, you need to leave it all alone for a couple of hours. Next they need to be washed, dried and lubricated with vegetable oil, then coated with colorless varnish.

ADVICE! When drying seashells, do not get carried away with sunbathing. If you leave shells in the open sun, they will begin to crumble.

Items that we will decorate

Decorating with your own hands is a very exciting and rewarding activity. You can give free rein to your imagination and create something new, unique with your own hands. This option for transforming a room will be very economical.

In this way, you can give new life in your home interior to objects of different sizes:

mirrors;
coffee tables;
lamp shades or night lights;
dressers;
jewelry boxes;
photo frames.

A variety of trinkets of similar themes will serve as an excellent addition to the main material. These can be sea horses, corals, stars, pebbles, and many other small objects. They will be found at your home.

ADVICE! Don't go overboard with decorating your rooms with shells. It should remain light and casual.

If you overload the space with such decor, it will look very stupid and ugly. Please note that this natural component is an excellent tool not only for creating a marine look with your own hands in the house. He can make the most austere interior softer and more interesting. This result is possible provided that the material is selected correctly.

1st idea: mirrors made of shells

The first thing many girls think about when using a natural component to decorate their home with shells is photo frames or mirror rims. These products are in particular demand among ladies.

To design a beautiful mirror with your own hands, you will need:

mirror (framed);
hot glue gun (you can use “Moment” transparent glue when performing the work);
shells;
beads, pearls, river pebbles and other decorations (you can find them around your home);
varnish (colorless);
tweezers.

The process of decorating a mirror with your own hands is very entertaining, but painstaking.

You need to put the mirror on the table. Cover it with cloth or paper so as not to damage it with glue or scratches. Then heat up the glue. Glue small shells along the inner rim.

Advice! In order for them to attach better, glue must be poured onto them.

Once the outline is ready, start gluing the large shells. Don’t forget about their organic placement relative to each other. Then the gaps between the shells are filled with decorative beads, pebbles, pearls, etc. Once the mirror frame is completely covered with shells, leave the resulting product. It should dry well. This usually takes about a day. The final stage is to coat the mirror with shells with colorless varnish.

2nd idea: photo frame

A stylish photo frame can make every photo unique. It will add a certain charm.

Making a unique frame is quite easy. For this you will need:

glue;
shells;
rhinestones;
glitter;
pebbles;
pearls.

When all the components are ready for work, you can begin the process itself. Take wooden frame. Mark on it the locations of shells and other decorative items. Then use glue to bring the idea to life.

3rd idea: candlestick

One of the most interesting and unusual homemade decorations is seashells used as a candlestick. In order for such an interesting little thing to appear in the house, you will need a large shell, a wick and wax.

The process of preparing such a romantic attribute will not take much time and effort. You need to choose the largest shell. It should be comfortable and stable. Place the wick in the recess, fill it with wax, and then let it cool.

Conclusion

Shell decor is a great chance to express yourself. It’s nice to do it with your own hands, to dream up your imagination, to spend time usefully and with pleasure.

Decorating panels and bottles with your own hands (2 videos)

Seashell decor options (43 photos)

Posted from: 9-21-2016

This year I finally realized my old dream - I made decor from seashells. I have been collecting shells for a long time - from every trip to the sea I brought with me a certain amount of shells. I was all about to start making crafts from shells for the interior, but, as they say, “the preparations were short-lived” 🙂 The only thing is that the shells were used to decorate miniature gardens in bowls, the creation of which I am passionate about.

This year I was lucky enough to visit the sea near Anapa, in st. Blagoveshchenskaya, where we were camping on a sand spit. There were absolutely extraordinary shells there - the likes of which I had never seen in my life. They were large, bright, some were even covered with some kind of limescale, reminiscent of coral formations.

Of course, during my vacation I was enthusiastically collecting this beauty, with the goal of subsequently making decor from shells. Other shells, smaller ones, I collected on the Sea of Azov when we went to the port of Caucasus near Taman to meet a friend from the ferry.

When we were returning from the sea, we stopped at Ikea near Krasnodar and there I bought two wooden mirrors, hoping to decorate them with shells. I started decorating the mirror with my own hands while on a trip - it’s nice to do something creative on vacation when you have a lot of free time. For this I only needed pva glue, shells and the mirror itself.

How to glue shells to glass

Many people ask me how and what kind of glue can be used to glue shells to glass - I will say with all responsibility that better than glue I can't imagine it.

You need to glue shells like this: you squeeze PVA glue onto the surface (it should be thick and create a layer of 3 millimeters on the surface. This is exactly how many people do it - they simply spread it on the surface with a brush. In the latter case, your shells will fall off almost immediately.

But if you squeeze out the glue in a thick layer, then carefully place the shells in the glue (don’t be afraid, this will not harm the beauty), then they will stick very well. When the glue dries, its layer will become thinner and it will become transparent and invisible. This is exactly the way I glued the shells onto the mirror. Large orange ones were collected on the Black Sea, and small ones - on the Azov Sea.

Look at the shells themselves in macro photography - you can’t see the glue at all!

This is how the mirror was originally.

Well, this is what it became after decorating with shells.

The next idea to implement is to make one out of shells. Fortunately, after my last trip I have a lot of them.

In addition to its functional mission, the mirror serves as a decorative decoration for the entire interior of the room, regardless of its purpose. Mostly mirrors are purchased from finished form, and the products offered are produced mainly in standard configurations, but you can also purchase a designer item, but its cost will be quite high.

You can solve the problem yourself by making a frame for the mirror with my own hands or decorate the existing one using scrap materials and personal imagination.

If your imagination is a little tight, you can always resort to online resources, where you can see many photos with mirror decor options.

Mirror decorating ideas

Perhaps almost everyone knows the amazing property of mirrors - expanding the space of a room, making it visually larger than its actual size, and the role of stylish interior decoration.

You can decorate mirrors various materials, available in sufficient quantities for everyone. And your indefatigable imagination and great desire will bring any ideas for decorating mirrors into reality, moreover, made with your own hands, which will make your creation truly priceless and unique.

The main field for creativity in decorating mirrors is not the mirror surface, but its framing, i.e. frame. To decorate it, you don’t need any special knowledge or experience at all; this process is quite accessible to everyone, the main thing is to have good taste and a creative approach to the design process.

To decorate a mirror frame, you can use: seashells, pieces of broken glass or ceramics, tile shards, paper, newspapers, jewelry elements, mosaic remains, bamboo sticks, tree branches and much more.

Using broken glassware

You can easily make mirror decor from broken glassware with your own hands. Did your favorite cup or plate break? Don’t rush to throw away the fragments, because you can use them to make decorations for a mirror frame.

Cut the mosaic pieces using the appropriate tool. Prepare in advance a project for your future creation and a field for creativity.

Glue the mosaic components on top of the workpiece using regular glue; small beads and pebbles with mother-of-pearl will not be superfluous; in addition, you can use other details at your discretion. At the end of the process, it is necessary to grout the frame surface and wipe it with a soft cloth.

Decor using shells

Decorating a mirror frame using shells couldn’t be easier if you have glue, acrylic-based paints and a sufficient number of different shells on hand. Prepare the surface of the frame in advance, clean it from dust and dirt. Apply glue on top of it and place the prepared shells in the intended order.

Straight lines, wavy lines, in the form of circles or bends, and other configurations will look beautiful. Let the composition dry for some time, then cover acrylic paint or seal with varnish.

Decorating with stones

A frame decorated with stones looks quite expensive and stylish. When using glass drops, do not forget that they are quite massive, which means you should leave some space around them free. Do not combine stones of different types and textures.

For decoration, the ideal choice would be: smaller-than-average pebbles, drop-shaped glass, crystal elements, artificial or natural stones, rhinestones and other materials. Use special transparent glue to secure it.

We decorate the wall with mirrors according to the rules

In order not to spoil the wall with future creations, and to successfully decorate the mirrors on the wall, you must follow certain simple rules:

give preference to mirrors of one size; it is better to use products no larger than average;
products of non-standard shapes, as a rule, are not placed in frames;
round or square mirrors should be decorated with a beautiful frame;
a composition of the same type of mirror frames will look seamless, regardless of the size of the mirrors;
use no more than 5 mirrors with a spectacular and stylish frame in the composition, otherwise you will disrupt the harmony;
A win-win option would be to use mirror frames that fit perfectly with the entire style of the interior design of the room.