This is statically charged and will start to attract dust, so lots of cleaning is required. You’ll need to carefully peel back the two protective layers and then replace the clear sheet in the frame. Unpack the frame, remove the mount, and then remove the plastic clear sheet. It’s vital that all these are kept as clean as possible during assembly as any dust will get trapped and leave an irritating mark on your lovely mirror.

To create our magic mirror, we will create a ‘sandwich’ of the frame, a piece of observation mirror acrylic, and the screen. This can be built in an afternoon and is a great way to find out whether you want to take it to the next step and get working on something a bit bigger. In this tutorial, we’ll assemble a simple magic mirror using off-the-shelf parts. Although the results are undoubtedly impressive, it can make the hobby look a little daunting to the beginner, especially if you don’t have access to the necessary equipment to build a custom frame. There have been some impressive magic mirror projects as makers around the globe challenge each other to improve on previous designs. Would you like a magic mirror, but don’t fancy all that carpentry? Here’s a first project to ease you in without having to reach for the band-sawĪ Raspberry Pi Zero would seem ideal for this project, but MagicMirror2 is incompatible with that model and the original Raspberry Pi 1. It’s no wonder it won the number one slot in our best projects feature for The MagPi issue 50. Best of all, you can expand the capabilities of your mirror through the hundreds of community plug-ins available and, if you wish, you can write your own. This modular system takes away all the programming and design pain. Fortunately, the team at MagicMirror2, headed by Michael Teeuw (see The MagPi issue 54), have not only compiled tutorials and fostered a great community, they’ve also built their own open-source application. Let’s take a look at one of these makers and then have a go at building our own mirror.Ĭreating a good magic mirror requires experience in many disciplines including carpentry, electronics, programming, and graphic design. Although they come across as advanced builds, the community behind the projects have made significant advances in making magic mirrors accessible to all. The information displayed is typically what you need as you’re preparing to leave the house: weather, news headlines, and transit information. Initially created by combining old laptops and semi-reflective observation glass, they appear as normal mirrors but with text and images that appear to float in mid-air. Magic mirrors have to be one of the most popular projects out there.

A magic mirror