Infinity Mirror Table - Hayden Kibble

I was thinking of building an infinity mirror coffee table for quite a while, it has been on my list of ‘to-do’ projects for ages. I was waiting to come across a suitable coffee table and then I found an ideal one in the clearance section of a nearby furniture shop. It was pretty scuffed and had a couple of scratches, but they only wanted £25 for it. I offered £20 and they accepted. Perfect! It was bigger than I had originally intended but ideal for our office.

Infinity mirrors are made from a mirror (in this case facing up) and a one-way mirror. A strip of LEDs is sandwiched between them in a gap about 5cm wide. To make the one-way mirror I used mirror film which is attached to the underside of the glass surface.

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Video

Features

Individually-addressable RGB LEDs Dual LED rows for extra depth Wiring routed inside leg to improve the illusion Multiple display modes/effects Adjustable brightness Remote controlled

Build Gallery

Picked this old coffee table up from a highstreet furniture shop. Bolts were a bit loose and a few scratches but it was in okay condition
Ordered the mirror online from www.mirrorfit.co.uk and provided exact measurements. It was very carefully delivered by their own delivery guy in a specialist van. Very impressed!
Dismantled the table. It't just held together with bolts. Very straightforward.
Sanded down every part using around 100 grit paper. With a little help from my son and my dog provided technical supervision.
Child labour is cool.
Cut and routed some timber to form a bit of a frame to drop the mirror down and provide enough gap between the mirror and glass above for LED strips. Should be a bit clearer later on.
The legs after sanding
Gluing the frame I routed earlier. Note the bottom strip of wood is scrap to apply pressure while clamping.
View of the groove that the mirror sits in, within the bottom frame
The underside of the table top, with frame glued in it.
The mirror dropped into the recess of the frame. Perfect fit! The dog wanted to be involved throughout.
Close-up showing the recess that the mirror drops into
Took the mirror into the bathroom to fit the 1-way reflective film. The bathroom is the best place to do this as it has minimal dust. I ran the shower for a while to raise the humidity.
After fitting the film to the underside of the glass
Initial proof-of-concept testing. Looks amazing already!
The legs after some paint. I lightly sanded with 150-200 grit sand paper after every coat and built up at least 3 coats.
Measuring up a main IEC plug socket ready to order the enclosure for the electronics. Fused, of course.
Testing the circuit on a breadboard. I used an Arduino nano and a beefy switched mode PSU off eBay. The LED strips can draw a couple of amps on full brightness. Be sure to do the maths to determine max power consumption. I also tested the current draw on full brightness and it turned out significantly less.
I bought some black sticky foam to go round where the mirror sits in the recess, to give it a nice soft surface to sit on. Notice how I also painted the inside of the frame black. This is in the void between mirrors where the LED strips go.
Close-up of the foam
I screwedwood battens on the underside of the mirror to hold it firmly in place. Shown face down.
Got some nice furniture feet from eBay to protect the floor/legs.
As an after-thought, I decided to run the wires up from the circuit box to the LED strips inside the leg to hide them. This turned out to be a wise decision!
Carved the channel out with a chisel.
Glued the wires in the channel with some Gorilla glue. That stuff is great.
Filled in the channel afterwards and sanded.
After a couple of coats you'd never know there are wires in there!
Table with legs back on and glass in place. We're getting somewhere!
I used kitchen foil to protect the mirror as I superglued the LED strips in place. The strips have sticky backs but this usually isn't enough and they can come away
Both LED strips in place. Sexual.
I connected across both power lines forming a loop to spread the current load
Mounting the circuit in the enclosure
The circuit and PSU mounted to the underside of the table. Worth taking the time to make everything secure and neat if you want it to last in the real world
Side view showing the rotary encoder knob that lets you select modes (click) and adjust brightness (twist)
It's finished! Looks even better in real life, I'm so happy with it.
Trying out some of the funky modes
Lava mode! The colours scroll and transition giving it a mesmerising organic feel. cooool.

Suppliers

Parts used to construct this project were sourced from the following suppliers.

Amazon

eBay

Farnell

MirrorFit

TintFit